Secular human rights should be abandoned because these eventually poison the mind and lead to the irrelevance of spirituality, divinity and morality, said former premier Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

macc official launch 240209 abdullah badawi He was speaking at a seminar on religion and human rights organised by the Malaysian Institute of Islamic Understanding, which he chairs.

“Many do not realise that the concept and practice of human rights movement based on the philosophy of humanism, secularism and hedonism is the enemy of all religions,” he said.

“In my opinion, human rightism stems from ancient Greece, where the scholar Protagoras suggested a beautiful but poisonous statement - ‘man is the measure of all things’.

“It means that man is free to decide and do anything for their importance and pleasure. From this, secularism was born, in turn promoting a hedonistic culture.”

Abdullah explained that there is a difference between secular human rights as derived from Western countries, and human rights based on the religions and traditions.

‘The difference in Islam’

He went on to say that Islam promotes the freedom of doing what is beneficial to humanity.

“Islam is not against the culture and religion of other religions. Islam uses the word ikhtiyar for freedom, of which the root word is not hurriyyah but khayr .

“It refers to something useful and good. Hence, the real freedom is freedom to decide and do something that brings benefits to each individual and those around, not the opposite, although it may seem good and beneficial to the naked eye.”

About 200 Islamic scholars, activists and law experts attended the two-day seminar which began today.

Professor Mashood A Baderin, the head of the faculty of law in the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London, presented a paper in which he addressed the need for better understanding of religion and human rights.