ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the nature of human rights with regard to the emerging conflict between its universality and the cultural-assertive claims of the Islamic shari'a. Human rights are individual entitlements that evolved from European modern thought on natural law. Individual human rights are clearly a cultural concept of morality, European in origin. This concept grew from the notion of natural law and it has been related to real cultural and social processes of individuation that took place in the wake of modernity. The notion of establishing cross-cultural foundations for a universal morality shared by all civilizations in the system of international relations becomes more and more a pertinent issue. In cultural terms, Islam can be found in a diversity of local cultures, however, a sweeping generalization of this observation leads to overlooking the basic elements of Islamic civilization. Muslims really share standards of this civilization and have in common a world view related to it.
