The world is pluralistic in many ways. It consists of peoples of diverse racial, ethnic, religious, and cultural backgrounds. Several distinct civilizations have emerged from these diverse peoples. The major civilizations in the contemporary world include Western, Asian, African and Islamic civilizations. With these different civilizations come different ideologies, value systems and worldviews. Although Western civilization has become dominant in the world, Islamic civilization is its major rival. Some have argued that given the fundamental differences between Western and Islamic civilizations, a clash of civilizations is inevitable. This has become apparent particularly in the area of human rights. The international human rights law that emerged in the middle of the last century is dominated by Western thought and historical experience. These human rights lay claim to universality whereas there are conceptual and normative differences between Islamic and Western perspectives of human rights.
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