The Right to be Different

The history of civil rights dates back to the beginning of ancient citystates. Widespread social and cultural developments of the two last decades of the twentieth century and the two first decades of the twentyfirst century have led to emergence of a new concept of cultural diversity and arguments about the reformulation of concepts like the self and identity, and their social, cultural, political and even economic consequences. Among them is the importance of the existing ‘differences’ amongst citizens. Unlike the modern conception of democratic citizenship which id mostly concerned with the equality of people with respect to rights and duties, the postmodern conception emphasizes their right to be different through recognizing those differences. To choose different lifestyles, following different life patterns and the realization of their own ideal of the good life, is now recognized as certain rights for citizens and certain duties required from states. In what follows, after a short review of the historical development of the concept of citizenship in the West, its postmodern interpretation will be described and, finally, some suggestions for theorizing this more recent understanding of citizen’s right within contemporary Islamic tradition of thought will be offered.