Political Interactions of Muslim Organizations in the Human Rights Context

Mustafa Osman Turan, Ph.D. candidate, Bilkent University, Ankara

Overview •  The Context and the Research Questions

•  Muslim Political Participation and Human Rights: Basic Assumptions

•  Why Muslim Political Participation Should Be a Concern for Liberal States?

•  Emerging New Avenues for Participation

•  Human Rights as "Ground Rules": Six Hypotheses

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The Context

•  Core challenges faced by the Liberal State:

•  to reconcile national cohesion with respect for diversity

•  to prevent radicalization and combat terrorism without jeopardizing human rights

•  to accommodate or not the political and religious demands of Muslims

•  Shift in the perception of identities from ethnicity, class, ideology towards religion/culture

•  Intolerant public discourse becomes mainstream and largely unchallenged

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Research Questions

• What are the existing patterns of political interaction between government agencies and Muslims in Belgium?

• What role does human rights discourse play within these interactions?

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Basic Assumptions •  Human rights can positively affect the political participation of all

individuals with different legal status

•  "Political participation" covers a broad range of electoral and non-electoral types of political activities

•  "Political opportunity structures" are significant but not sufficient to explain the level of political mobilization

•  "Muslim" refers to an individual who religiously, culturally or otherwise have no problem to be identified as Muslim

•  Migrants/Muslims do not have more or less "political apathy" than other citizens or non-citizens

•  "Human rights" may represent a controversial political agenda for some Muslims

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Why Muslim Political Participation should concern us?

• Democratic Legitimacy argument

• Democratic Security argument

•  "Participation is a key pillar of integration."

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Emerging avenues for Muslim Political Participation

•  A dual-track policy:

•  hardening immigration and asylum procedures (mainly from the Muslim world)

•  active engagement with the residing Muslim immigrants

•  Consultative bodies and civil society organizations to serve as viable channels for non-citizen political participation

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Human Rights as "Ground Rules": Six Hypotheses

•  A human rights framework (HRF) can facilitate political interactions between Muslim Organizations and host society authorities because it provides them with a common language essential for democratic dialogue.

•  HRF can help broaden the terms of engagement with Muslim communities beyond security agenda and enhance their sense of belonging.

•  HRF can facilitate recognition of multiple identities of migrants and widen opportunities for their participation that are not solely as Muslims, but also through mainstream organizations.

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Human Rights as "Ground Rules": Six Hypotheses (cont.)

•  A dialogue with Muslim immigrants based on HRF empowers them because the Liberal State is under legal and political commitments both at the national and international levels to respect and protect human rights of all persons under its jurisdiction, including non-citizens.

•  HRF can assist the Liberal State to address cultural and religious claims of Muslim communities in a secular context.

•  Speaking human rights language in interactions between Muslim organizations and institutions of liberal states would further encourage and contribute to the ongoing reinterpretation of the Islamic law and practices in a way that would be compatible with the international human rights law.

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Time to bridge the gap! Mustafa Osman Turan, Ph.D. candidate,

Bilkent University, Ankara

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