Islam och mänskliga rättigheter: Hos Hüseyin Atay och Yaşar Nuri Öztürk

Sammanfattning: The relationship between human rights and Islam has for a long time been a topic discussed among Muslim theologians and intellectuals. There are those who claim that Islam and human rights are by nature in conflict, then there are those who instead claim that there is no opposition between the two. The purpose of this thesis has been to study the thoughts on the correlation between Islam and human rights in the works of two Turkish theologians; Yaşar Nuri Öztürk and Hüseyin Atay. They both view human rights as an integrated part of Islam. My research questions have been the following: 1) How do they understand Islam and what concept of mankind are they conveying in their interpretations of the Quran? 2) In which ways do Atay and Öztürk consider human rights as a part of Islam, and how do they argue for this kind of interpretation? Guided by these questions, I have conducted a qualitative text analysis of the two writings Islamı yeniden anlama (2017) by Hüseyin Atay and Kur’an penceresinden özgürlük ve isyan: Teofilozofik bir tahlil (2015) by Yaşar Nuri Öztürk. The result has shown that both Atay and Öztürk’s concept of mankind is founded in a thought about equal worth in front of God independent of the religion, ethnicity, or gender. They also emphasize that each human being has been created as God’s deputies (Khalif/Khalifa) on earth. This view on the humankind means having a sense of responsibility of protecting peace on earth and at the same time being a productive person for humanity, nature and animals. Through the way Atay stresses the doctrine of goodness (Emri-bil-Maruf), he notes that humans shall encourage good deeds no matter who commit them. Öztürk stresses the importance of freedom of mankind since a human being will lack the ability to act as God’s deputy on earth without being free. Öztürk sees human rights as a part of Islam and highlights principles in the Quran similar to those in the UN declaration of human rights. Both Atay and Öztürk emphasizes that the Quran applies to all mankind, and therefore argue for an Islamic theology that is comprehensive and embraces everyone.