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Readers of Shamsher Ali's `review' of my book Islam and Human Rights: Tradition and Politics1 will probably notice how he has exploited this opportunity to expatiate on `the Islamic system.2 Mr. Ali exudes confidence that he is the master of `the Qur'anic directional guidance'[sic] (see p. 318). In his eagerness to find pretexts for holding forth on this topic, he has chosen to ascribe to me ignorant stances and perverted methods that serve as springboards for his digressions. This technique is regrettable, since it involves grossly misrepresenting what I have written. Whether or not his assessments were negative or positive, as a reviewer, Mr. Ali owed it to the readers at least to attempt something like an accurate representation of my book. (And, I note in passing, he owed it to them to review the revised and updated third edition, which has been out since August 1998.)
A sampling of Mr. Ali's misrepresentations may suffice to establish his modus operandi. Mr. Ali alleges that I am calling the Qur'an premodern (see p. 307), going so far as to lob the outrageous accusation that I have `derisively and repeatedly' called Qur'anic guidance `premodern' (e.g. p. 299). I have never made such characterizations of the Qur'an! Instead, I discuss how various Muslims, institutions, and governments have interpreted the Islamic sources as they pertain to human rights concerns, comparing and contrasting their differing views. In doing this, I compare older interpretations of the Islamic sources with more recent ones, contrasting the views of the jurists of the past, who created what I call the premodern shari'ah, with the ideas of contemporary Muslims. In similar fashion, I contrast premodern Western doctrines with contemporary Western thinking.3 As I use it, the term `premodern' is not derogatory. I simply employ `premodern' to designate older trends in thinking (whether in Islamic intellectual history or in Western milieus), such as the tendency to emphasize the duties that individuals owe to family and society, and to differentiate these from more modern ways of thinking, such as treating human beings as bearers of rights. Muslims function in historical contexts the same way non-Muslims do. It should be apparent that Muslims' historically bound readings of the Islamic sources evolve over time and that these readings can...