Summary: As Sudan began to craft a new idea of itself in the mid-20th Century mdash; one that required gaining independence from Great Britain mdash; one man began to create a new idea of Islam. Mahmoud Mohamed Taha was involved in Sudanrsquo;s fight for independence and imprisoned for that involvement. It was while behind bars he saw Islam as a religion in need of liberalization and reform. Islam, Taha reasoned, needed to become more progressive. It needed to embrace human rights. An Islamic reformation was something he worked toward once released. Taha eventually embracing the womenrsquo;s movement and opposing the imposition of sharia mdash; Islamic law mdash; in Sudan. The religious leader was hanged in 1985 after a judge found Taha and four others guilty of sedition. Taha And Human Rights Taharsquo;s teachings appealed to many Sudanese youth, including Abdullahi An-Narsquo;im. An-Narsquo;im, the Charles Howard Chandler Professor of Law in Emory Universityrsquo;s law school, has followed in his teacherrsquo;s footsteps. His research focuses on human rights cross-culturally as well as within Islam. ldquo;I was torn between being a Muslim with popular understandings of sharia mdash; Islamic law mdash; and the rights of women and religious minority,rdquo; An-Narsquo;im says. ldquo;Taha helped me to come to peace with being a Muslim and human rights activist at the same time.rdquo; An-Narsquo;im says Taharsquo;s vision was groundbreaking because of his reference back to the original message of Islam. In Taharsquo;s thinking, the traditional interpretations of Islam had thrown up barriers to true Muslim understanding of the Qurrsquo;anrsquo;s message. By focusing on the original message of Islam, An-Narsquo;im says, Taha was able to systematically argue for human rights from a perspective within the faith. ldquo;Taha was reforming Islam within an Islamic perspective which allowed for a reinterpretation of sharia with Islamic sources and from an Islamic point of view and was not apologetic or selective.rdquo; The Qur'an In Context One way of moving reform forward is to contextualize some of the information in the Qurrsquo;an. However, some argue that one cannot contextualize the Qurrsquo;an because it is a direct revelation to the Prophet Mohammad from Allah. But An-Narsquo;im says that contextualization is absolutely necessary for Muslims living in the 21st Century. ldquo;If you take what Islam was in the 7th-10th centuries in that sense, there are certain aspects of Islam that are not incompatible with our understanding of human rights,rdquo; An-Narsquo;im says. ldquo;But, of course, the very notion of universal rights mdash; regardless of race or gender mdash; is new idea. If you take this idea of what Islam was understood to be in the beginning of Islam, naturally yoursquo;ll see Muslims at that time could not have even conceived of universal rights. In the issue of rights of women, rights of non-Muslims and freedom of religion and if you look at these three issues you will see that our understanding of sharia is totally incompatible with human rights.rdquo; Reconsidering Islam For An-Narsquo;im the only way Islam can become compatible with human rights is by re-examining the faith. To embrace human rights, he says, Muslims must reconsider their understanding of Islam. ldquo;To say I want to stay with the traditional understanding and I want to support human rights mdash; you cannot have it both waysrdquo;, An-Narsquo;im says. ldquo;You have to be one or the other. You have to be willing to reconsider your understanding of Islam or you have to be content with defending that ancient understanding.rdquo;
