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The conflict between Islam and modernity

As reported by the , many in the Muslim community have long taken issue with the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). The declaration, these critics attest, was created by colonial powers with a history of gross human-rights violations, and amounts to yet another attempt by a few Western players to impose their will upon Muslim countries.

This clash between the U.N.’s secular human-rights standards and Muslim religious doctrine mirrors the broader conflict between Islam and modernity. Fortunately, an emerging school of Muslim thought addresses the question in a new way, emphasizing that the Quran, like any religious text, must be interpreted — and that those interpretations can change over time.

In fact, the Quran does defend principles like liberty, impartiality and righteousness, which indicates a fundamental respect for justice and human dignity. The problemis that many parts of Shariah law are linked to pre-modern social structures, which deny women or non-Muslims the same protections as Muslim men receive.

The conflict between Islam and modernity