Human rights may seem like an obvious thing to advocate for. After all, we are all human and want the best for ourselves and others. But where does our notion of rights really come from? Who is the “human” of human rights?

Imam Tom Facchine invites Dr. Zara Khan to discuss the history of human rights movements, the underlying assumptions of what it means to be human, as well as how human rights discourse is politicized and weaponized against Islam and Muslims.

Chapters

0:00 - Introduction

2:00 - Defining “rights” and their origins

5:05 - The rights of Allah

6:15 - Rights implied in the Qur'an

8:56 - Two sources of rights from Surah al-Nisa

12:07 - Origins of the Western conception of rights

14:28 - Roman-Christian tradition vs. Enlightenment

21:03 - Imam Ghazali on the sacred value of society

22:30 - The (not) Universal Declaration of Human Rights

24:32 - Are human rights useful?

25:50 - Defining the “human” in “human rights”

28:55 - Unpacking freedom of religion

31:00 - Not all societies prioritize the same rights

33:00 - The state defines and limits human rights

35:25 - Secularism in the United States and France

37:57 - Consent to marriage, child labor

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