Community is first in Islam, says expert

Community is first in Islam, says expert

JAKARTA (JP): Islam puts the community, and consequently the
state, before the individual, leading Moslem thinker Munawir
Sjadzali said yesterday.

"From my understanding of Islam, the religion recognizes that
individuals have rights, but when it comes to community and state
affairs, the rights of the community as a unit, or the state,
must take precedence," said Munawir, chairman of the National
Commission on Human Rights and former religious affairs minister.

Munawir spoke about Islam and human rights at the graduation
ceremony of the Jakarta Muhammadiyah University, Antara reported.

In his paper, he said there were differences between human
rights concepts in the West, which underlines the United Nations
Human Rights Declaration, and in the Islamic world.

The UN declaration is founded on the belief that individuals
are born with natural rights that cannot be taken away, he said.

This belief crystallizes the intellectual thinking of Western
political philosophers such as John Locke, Jean Jacques Rousseau
and Thomas Jefferson.

"The obligations of individuals are given in order to protect
their natural rights," he said.

The UN declaration is also colored by the principle that a
community and a state is established chiefly to secure and
protect the rights of the individual members or citizens.

In Islam, an individual is born with obligations, Munawir
said. If later the individual is granted rights, this is because
the individual cannot meet those obligations without rights.

"Therefore, according to Islam, individual rights are not
natural. They are given," he said, citing a Koranic verse which
states that man and other beings were created solely to dedicate
themselves to Allah.

Munawir said Islam has a history of strong tolerance towards
people of other faiths, such as in the early years of Islam in
Medina, Saudi Arabia, when Moslems coexisted peacefully with Jews
and non-believers.

The harmony was based on what was then known as the Medina
Charter. But the Jewish betrayal of that charter later sowed the
seeds of enmity between Moslems and Jews.

This eroded the spirit of tolerance among Moslems, and began
the shift towards a more exclusive community.

This is why even in today's modern age, there are still many
Islamic intellectuals who feel that in an Islamic state, only
Moslems should enjoy full political rights, Munawir said. (emb)