Striving for human rights in an age of religious extremism
Channel: Association for Bahá’í Studies
Date: 2022-09-21

Nazila Ghanea - 2015 ABS Conference, Anaheim, California

The 33rd Hasan M. Balyuzi Memorial Lecture
Religious extremism has spawned academic and policy attention on religion, and this attention largely stems from an impulse to control ‘religion.’ Approaching this challenge from the perspective of international human rights law reveals interesting challenges regarding both ‘religion’ and ‘human rights,’ and the relationship between them. Bahá’í perspectives give multiple accounts of religion: as something that should result from individual search; that can stimulate service and fellowship on the one hand and ignite a world‐devouring fire on the other. Considering the global onslaught of religious extremism, what is the scope for seeking to bring the positive role of religion into the frame?