The new wave of the constitutionalisation of Islam, or Islamisation of the constitution, has engendered the question of to what degree this constitutional characteristic can co-exist with effective human rights, or whether one of them has to submit to the other. The issue is even more pressing as many of the countries of the ‘Arab spring’ debate on how to design their new constitutions and on what role Islam should or should not play. The lack of consensus as to the content of Islamic law has in practice allowed for conservative interpretations to prevail. This article looks at the experience of three countries that have gone from secular or semi-secular constitutions to Islamic constitutions in recent times, and points to some of the human rights challenges this development has resulted in.

Keywords: Constitution; Secular; Islamic law; Human Rights; Afghanistan; Iran; Iraq.