An Investigation of Compatibility of the Islamic Declaration with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights Based on Margin of Interpretation Doctrine

Since its adoption in 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights has moved along the path of universalism and, in the context of diversity-based approaches, the Vienna Declaration in 1993 clearly affirmed its universality. TheDeclaration of Human Rights has led to different reactions among Islamic thinkers. One group believed that the provisions of this Declaration were in accordance with Islamic texts and resources, while others were criticizing it from the Islamic Shari'a perspective; a group in the midst of this spectrum believed in the combination of Islamic doctrine and the provisions of the Declaration. Among the third group, there are some who believe that by revising religious texts one can reconcile Islam and human rights so that the Islamic readings of human rights can be accepted as a margin of interpretation. This article examines the Islamic Declaration of Human Rights (Cairo Declaration) as the margin of the interpretation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This paper indicates that the above proposition cannot be right; on the one hand, in spite of a large number of commonalities, there is a fundamental distinction; on the other hand, it is not possible to think of a hierarchical relationship between the Islamic Declaration and the Universal Declaration.