Nonviolent Resistance and Human Rights in the Muslim World
Session Description:
There is a robust and often overlooked conversation in the Muslim world regarding nonviolent resistance. But Muslim activists have routinely engaged in nonviolent resistance through protests, civil disobedience, political movements, and in the case of political prisoners through hunger strikes. In this session, scholars and activists discuss the justification of nonviolence in Islamic thought. The session considers a number of key issues, including the basis of nonviolence in the Qur’anic tradition, the contributions of important thinkers to a philosophy of nonviolence in the developed global Muslim tradition, and the application of nonviolent resistance in contemporary contexts. A crucial question is what kinds of nonviolent strategies can be justified in defense of human rights in response to oppressive regimes in the Muslim world.