Islam and Human Rights — Page 116
Isl am and Hum an R ights 116 to arbitrary, vexatious and irritating restrictions. In this respect there has been visible retrogression, temporarily justifiable, and perhaps even necessary, particularly during periods of war, but which is tending to become a permanent and normal restraint upon free human intercourse. International travel is becoming more and more a privilege rather than a freedom. Were international travel free and unrestricted the right to seek and enjoy asylum (Article 14) would lose the greater part of its significance. Subject to the provisions of Treaties regulating Extradition, everyone could go where he liked without let or hindrance. Islam strongly supports the right to seek and enjoy asylum from persecution. All forms of persecution are affronts to human dignity, but from the point of view of religion the worst is persecution in respect of matters of faith and conscience. In the early years, Islam and the Muslims were sub - jected to bitter and cruel persecution by the Quraish in Mecca. As life began to be made insupportable for them in Mecca the Prophet counselled some of them to leave Mecca and to seek asylum across the Red Sea in Ethiopia, where they might find conditions more endurable under the rule of the Christian Emperor. A small party, under the leadership of a cousin of the