Religion with secular ethical human rights can play a much greater role in politics.
Anthony Ravlich
Human Rights Council (New Zealand)
10D/15 City Rd.
Auckland City.
Ph: (0064) (09) 940.9658
So people can be aware of what is being worked on the following are some brief comments regarding religion and secular ethical human rights made on the social networking sites.
You may find it helpful to read my most recent article, ‘Human rights groups close ranks after Pope urges UN to resist Culture of Death’, Indybay, 3 June 2014, http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2014/06/03/18756911.php .
My post was as follows:
"HOPE. As well as offering hope of freedom from neoliberal absolutism (and its class interests) ethical human rights, development, globalization offers hope of freedom from terrorism with the discontented able to better gain democratic representation.
Ethical human rights can help reconcile the religious/secular divide because it can be adopted by any political party as its secular ethical base.
If secularism at the core human rights level can be accepted by, for example, Islamic political parties, then secularism may not prove such a barrier to political representation.
My comment to my publisher (I am writing a chapter on Bangladesh, approx 90% Muslim/10% Hindu, with its secular/religious divide) is as follows:
"I can see no reason why religious political parties cannot be accommodated within the framework of global ethical human rights. In the latter all should have, at least, the core minimum of the rights in the UDHR.
If political parties, including religious parties, accept human rights and secularism at the core minimum level then there seems little reason why people could not choose a religious party to govern. And it is hard to see why a religious party would not accept secularism at the level of core minimum human rights because, in my view, the latter virtually equate with the Golden Rule i.e. ‘do unto others…’, which the major religions espouse.
With the rise of political Islam this may have significant global implications".
PS. Global ethical human rights, which seeks to maximize potential, also offers hope of freedom from nil to negative growth e.g. would sustainable development matter so much if we landed a person on Mars.