Source: www.uscirf.gov
USA, September 18, 2009: (by Arvind Sharma, Birks Professor of Comparative Religion at McGill University in Montreal)
I have been asked to provide a Hindu perspective on religious freedom, to identify the diverse positions within it on the point and to comment on the relationship of Hindu nationalism to religious freedom.
Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights says: Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes the freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance
Using article 18 as the starting point of his presentation on religious freedom as a universal human right, the author proposes:
- That the concept of religious freedom articulated in this article presupposes a certain concept of religion, a concept associated with Western religion and culture;
- That a different concept of religion, associated with Eastern religion and culture, leads to a different concept of religious freedom; and
- That unless human rights discourse is able to harmonize these two concepts of religious freedom, ironically but not surprisingly, the clash of the two concepts might ultimately result in the abridgment of religious freedom in actual practice.
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Read the full essay at source above.