Positive Discrimination in Islam and the Rights of Religious Minorities in Islamic Government

Having adopted an approach based on human rights, one can say that there is no minority in a Islam in a strict sense, for all human beings are equal from human perspective and enjoy the same right to have fundamental human rights. Thus, the issue of religious minorities as the only minorities observed in the Islamic law is taken into account under the questions related to the rights of citizens rather than human rights. It is noteworthy, of course, that this study does not deal with the issue of minorities only in view of Islamic law. Rather, in all legal discussions raised in the modern world, there lies an issue of rights of minorities under the rights of citizens. Basing the abovementioned statements as its assumption, the present article, while putting emphasis on the freedom and rights of minorities in Islam, maintains that there is essentially positive discrimination of some kind in Islam and Iran as far as religious minorities are concerned.