The National Assembly of France adopted this Declaration on 26 August 1789, 30 days before the First Congress of the United States adopted the U.S. Bill of Rights and sent it to the state legislatures. Thomas Jefferson was the U.S. Ambassador to France at that time. Some of the French Assemblymen who worked on the Declaration consulted with him.

Article 10 affirms freedom of opinion, including religious opinion.

Article 11 upholds freedom of speech.

A Farsi translation of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen may be seen at http://www.ashti.org/

The foundation of the modern concept of human rights is that these rights are sacred and senior to any government authority. In fact the people delegate power to the government and the purpose of government is to promote the common interests of the people.

In other words, sovereignty resides in the people and the proper function of government is to serve the people.

Democracy was implemented in the U.S., and later in European and other countries, for the very purpose of upholding, defending and safeguarding the human rights of the people.

The Islamic Republic of Iran is founded on the premise that sovereignty resides in Allah. Allah delegates power to the clergy, the Olama, and the Olama appoint the Rahbar. So the proper function of the Rahbar is to rule the people and the proper function of the people is to serve and obey the Rahbar.

This is similar to the concept of the "divine right of kings" that prevailed in Europe up until the 1700s and the Rahbar is in a way a Priest-King, a Caliph.

The view of the world that Islamic authority must rule every political, legal and social aspect of all peoples lives is called Islamism and people who think this way are called Islamists.

All Islamists are Muslims. Not all Muslims are necessarily Islamists

The foundation of human rights and democracy is completely different to the foundation of Islamism.

Islamism is completely incompatible with human rights and democracy. Islamic democracy has never existed, does not exist and never will exist. Islamic democracy is an oxymoron, a contradiction in terms.

So if you are a Muslim then you need to decide: are you also an Islamist?

If you are an Islamist then human rights and democracy are not for you.

For each of the Major Human Rights Documents of Mankind:

For each sentence, Section or Article of the document:

Make sure that you clearly understand the sentence/Section/Article. Look up any words that are not clear to you.

Decide whether you agree or disagree with the sentence/Section/Article.

If you agree then decide what, if any, relevance the concepts in the sentence/Section/Article may have for your country:

·         How does your country measure up right now?

·         How might your country be improved in the future?

After going through each sentence/Section/Article of the document then decide what, if any, relevance the concepts in the the document as a whole may have for your country:

Let me close with Article 16 of the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen: