Muslims should have the same individual rights as everyone else, but not special rights as a group, according to a new publication.
That is the central argument of Mohammed Amin’s essay, hosted by the London-based Institute of Economic Affairs, which says legal rights belong to natural persons, not religious communities. He begins from the liberal principle that rights are held by individuals, and notes that the law may also recognize legal persons such as companies, before arguing that Muslims, as Muslims, are not a legal person and therefore cannot sensibly be granted collective rights.
Amin says the idea of group rights quickly becomes unworkable because no community can agree on a single definition of membership or a single set of common interests. In his view, Muslims in Britain differ sharply on issues such as bans on Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses or the burning of the Quran, which shows why collective rights would override personal freedom.
The essay concludes that group-based rights create conflict by turning society into a contest between communities rather than a system of equal citizens. He cites India’s reservation system and Lebanon’s confessional order as warnings, and argues that a healthy society protects identical rights for every citizen, including freedom of religion and non-belief.
