Crime & Justice, Headlines, Human Rights, Middle East & North Africa

Q&A: ‘We Have to Develop Our Modern Sharia’

Abderrahim El Ouali interviews MOSTAFA HANNAOUI, founder of the Rights and People project

CASABLANCA, Dec 4 2008 (IPS) - A unique human rights project has been recently set up to empower more than 300 million people in the Arab world to campaign for their individual human rights, according to Mostafa Hannaoui.

Hannaoui, the founder of the Rights and People project, has the vision of providing Arabic-speaking people with the knowledge they need to engage in a region-wide debate on rights issues.

Central to his project will be open access to information about the use of the death penalty in the 24-country region and reporting the day-to-day struggle for the observance of the most fundamental of all rights, the right to life.

IPS: You recently announced the founding of a new abolitionist project called Rights and People. What are you aspiring to achieve? Mostafa Hannaoui: The idea is simply to bring human rights issues into the daily life of all citizens in the Arab world. Up to now, no Arab media organisation has specialised and been sufficiently engaged in the battle for human rights, especially the right to life.

Our first task will be to address a lack of information in the Arabic language and the Arab world about the death penalty, and human rights issues generally. We will make available on the web many publications about the death penalty. For this, we will encourage on-the-spot reporting and well-researched studies by experts on the social and cultural structures related to human rights and especially the death penalty. Citizens should have the ability to defend their human rights. This ability can only be developed by providing them with information.

IPS: Could you explain what you mean by “structures”? MH: In many parts of the world, such as the Arabic-speaking world and Asia, governments invoke terms like “Sharia law” and “Asian values” to justify their violations of human rights, especially their use of the death penalty and other inhumane punishments like flogging and stoning. Religion and culture play an important role in this.

There needs to be an entire renewal of culture. Take Islam as an example. It is absolutely illogical to go on implementing scholars’ judgements that were delivered centuries ago. These scholars were innovators in their times. But innovation did not come to a full stop after their judgements. Many of these scholars did not believe the earth was round. Today, we actually have more knowledge than they had then. So, we should innovate exactly as they did. As Muslims, we have to develop our modern Sharia fitting the necessities of our present-day life. This is, of course, the task of specialised researchers in universities and research centres, and not only official scholars. That is why our project will encourage studies on all the religious, cultural and social structures found in the Arab world justifying despotism and the violation of human rights.

IPS: What impact are you expecting from your project? MH: We are expecting a great impact as our information will be professional and freely available. A daily debate on human rights issues and the abolition of the death penalty will develop between intellectuals and the wider public. Thanks to the digital era and the ever-broadening spread of the Internet and use of mobile phones in the Arab world, we can effectively communicate our message to the great majority of people.

IPS: You say you are campaigning first of all on the right to life. Do you feel this right is so under threat in the Arab world? MH: As long as the death penalty remains, the right to life is certainly under threat. We cannot speak about other human rights when the basic and sacred right to life is not safe. Therefore, we consider that the abolition of the death penalty will lead the Arab world to an era of respect for human rights. How can you ask for your right to participate in the making of policy when you risk losing your own life because of doing this?

So, the abolition struggle in the Arab world is not only a battle for the right to life but one for all other human rights. We absolutely believe that abolition will help the Arab world adopt democracy and modernity. It will build a culture of citizenship with full and inalienable individual rights instead of the dominating medieval culture where people are considered merely as “subjects” without these.

IPS: Your project is based in Morocco. Do you feel you will have enough freedom to work on human rights issues here? MH: No matter how nihilist one may be, the situation of human rights in Morocco cannot be compared to other Arab countries where women do not have the right to vote in elections or even to hold a driving licence.

I do not say that Morocco is a paradise for human rights. There are still violations that occur from time to time. But they are widely condemned by NGOs and the great majority of the political parties.

After the recent events in the south where violations of human rights were reported, a parliamentary investigation committee was set up and human rights NGOs were allowed to carry out their investigations. Some of these later published their reports and held public activities around what happened. This would not have been possible in many other Arab countries where emergency and tribal laws prevent any activities by civil society. So, I think we can do our job in Morocco with less difficulty than in any other country in the Arab world.

IPS: Will you be campaigning especially for abolition in Morocco? MH: As a part of the project, the abolition of the death penalty in Morocco is certainly among our goals. We believe that Morocco is actually closer to abolition than any time before. After the process of reconciliation led by King Mohammed VI, all political forces do work publicly and openly. This means that the death penalty is no longer needed by the state to face-down political opponents. King Mohammed VI has carried out many courageous and unprecedented measures for the Arab world, such as his initiatives towards women. Women in Morocco are not only MPs and ministers but also advisors to the King.

Personally, I believe that the King will take another courageous step by abolishing the death penalty. But the society needs to be sufficiently prepared for the post-abolitionist era. I remember that Cheikh Tantaoui, Mufti of Egypt, was invited to express his abolitionist views in a religious ceremony at Ramadan presided over by the King. This was a good sign of the King’s position on abolition.