Religion and human rights: Awkward, but necessary, bedfellows

http://www.economist.com/blogs/erasmus/2014/09/religion-and-human-rights

Sep 4th 2014, 18:53
by B.C.



FOR people who dedicate their lives to promoting universal human rights, is religion a friend or a foe? Open Democracy, a London-based internet discussion forum, has been hosting a debate about that question for the last six months, drawing some impassioned contributions from scholars and activists across the world.

In one recent contribution, a Kenyan human-rights lawyer said she was dismayed by the rising influence of religion in her part of the world, which she blamed on a mixture of lobbying by religous-right groups in the rich north and an attempt by local elites to offer the "opium" of faith as a substitute for any solution to real problems like poverty or violence. She blamed conservative American lobbies for promoting anti-gay laws in African countries, such as Uganda.

As the lawyer, Achieng Maureen Akena, saw things, "the link between religion and oppression is particularly visible today in Kenya, where the public’s religious adherence is increasing with rising poverty and insecurity." She added:



Earlier participants in the debate have trodden some very predictable ground. On one hand, huge contributions to the advancement of human rights have been made by people of faith, from William Wilberforce to Martin Luther King. On the other, the tenets of many religions are at variance with modern secular thinking about gender and sexual orientation. And as several people have pointed out, religions tend to be highly sensitive to one human right - their own entitlement to practise and propagate their beliefs - but less respectful of the rights of others. So far, so familiar.

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