''Minority Groups and Islamic Countries: An Analysis in Light of International Human Rights Standards''

Generally, human rights issues from the 18th century onwards have become important in the international dialogue between countries. Although before 18th century, there was no attention to the minority groups issues and human rights in general, after the 18th century and especially in our time, the enhancement of people's awareness in all countries, and on the other hand, the civil and social movements, cultural activities, and international NGOs, the international society had to become more sensitive and industrious regarding human rights, fundamental freedoms, and minority groups issues. Furthermore, the huge amount of human rights and minority groups’ disasters in our time have attracted the attention of countries to the human rights violations, and they have tried to stop them in order to protect and promote victim groups. On the other hand, after the 18th century, simultaneously with the creation of countries in the world, many Islamic countries and regimes have been created and have been becoming more intemperate. In fact, as a human rights factor, the legal and political system of each country, and the religion, should always be separated; the mixture of politics and religion usually leads to a human rights violation. Historically speaking, in every country where politics has been mixed with religion, many human rights problems have happened. These problems not only have affected that country, but also, have affected many other countries and international community. We have seen this in all religious regimes from Christian in the Medieval period to Islam in our time. Moreover, religion has been abused by religious leaders in almost all of these countries. From my point of view, the complete separation of politics and religion is a fundamental need of international community, especially, in our time, with these conservative and intemperate religious groups that repeatedly are threatening the countries and international society. The threats that nowadays, from the deserts of Africa and the heart of Europe, in the name of religion terrify international community, and the existence of human being. Although the minority groups in all around the world approximately do not have an acceptable condition, the situation of minority groups in Islamic countries is frequently a disaster. As it will be discussed in the next Chapters, the Islamic criminal law consists of so many anti-human rights rules that majority of them are not compatible with neither international human rights norms, nor logical criterions. Therefore, this matter encouraged me to dedicate my Ph.D. thesis to study of minority groups issues. In our time, with these catastrophic situations of minority groups and human rights, an alteration in international approach really is sensed. And both international rules and countries approach regarding minority groups should be changed. Nowadays, a human rights violation, even in a tiny scale, everywhere in the world, would be the problem of international community. Therefore, the countries and international society should be more sensitive regarding human rights violations, and accept their duty and responsibility for protection and promotion of minority groups and human rights as general. In this dissertation, I have studied ‘’Human Rights Standards in Islamic Criminal Law regarding Minority Groups’’. The thesis is divided into five Chapters. In the first Chapter, after a historical review of minority groups and description of their creation, the international definition of minority groups will be studied. Chapter one will present definitions of minority groups among the opinions of scholars, and international documents. In addition, I will present a comprehensive definition for them. Then, species and types of minority groups, such as religious, linguistic and ethnic minority groups will be studied. In the end of this chapter, the main and fundamental demands of minority groups will be scrutinized. Chapter 2 will present Islamic criminal law. In this chapter, I study all sources of Islamic criminal law: (1) The Quran which is considered as the most important source of Islam, (2) Sunnah which is the verbally transmitted record of the teachings, deeds and sayings of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, as well as various reports about Muhammad's companions, and (3) Ijma which is the agreement of the qualified legal scholars in a given generation and such consensus of opinion is deemed infallible, shall be studied. Furthermore, two main sects of Islam (Sunni and Shia) and their sub-sects will be analyzed. In another part of this chapter, the Islamic punishments such as Hudud which mean the specific penalties for particular offences, (e.g. theft, consumption of intoxicants, illegal sexual intercourse, and apostasy), Qisas, and Tazirat shall be scrutinized. Chapter 3 will be about minority groups and Islamic criminal law. The first part of this chapter will be dedicated to the definition and place of ‘’law’’ and ‘’human rights’’ in Islamic law doctrine, and the opinion of Islam regarding these concepts will be discussed. Then, I will scrutinize the conflict between Islamic criminal law and international human rights standards. Furthermore, some significant differences of this contrast, such as harsh punishments of Islamic criminal law for Apostasy or Blasphemy, will be analyzed carefully. Chapter 4 shall be regarding international efforts of countries and international community for the protection of minority groups, especially in Islamic countries. First, the flows of the protection of minority groups under the United Nations system will be studied. After that, the protection of minority groups under the United Nations system will be considered. In this chapter, (1) the activities and documents of the United Nations and its bodies such as the General assembly, Security Council, and Economic and Social Council, and (2) some other international organizations and documents such as the forum on minority Issues of the United Nations, the Human Rights Committee, The Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, and the Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic minorities, will be scrutinized. Chapter 5 will study the difficulties of protection and promotion of minority groups, and some of their reasons. It will also study the effectiveness and usefulness of the international efforts of countries and international community for the protection of minority groups, especially in Islamic countries. In continue, the concept of ‘’responsibility to protect’’, and the ways that it can help minority groups will be investigated. Furthermore, some suggestions to improve the protection and promotion of minority groups shall be presented