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38Islam, Democracy and Human Rights in Contemporary Indonesiaconduct of state of affairs in the field of economy, social, andpolitics was open to anyone.Taking into account the sermon by Prophet Muhammadin his Khutbah Hajjatul Wada%u2019 (Farewell Hajj Address) and theprinciples contained in Medina Charter, we can draw aconclusion that the principles what today is known as humanrights, as a matter of fact, are a treasure in the teaching of Islam. It is not necessary to be apologetic as frequently alleged by theOrientalists when we claim those historic documents inheritedfrom Prophet Muhammad were available long before theissuance of similar documents came into existence in the modernhistory of the western world, like Magna Charta, England(1215), United States Constitution (1787), Declaration of Rightsof Man and Citizen, France (1789), until the adoption ofUniversal Declaration on Human Rights by the United NationsGeneral Assembly in 1948, and the subsequent covenants oncivil and political rights and other international documents andconventions.Even though those documents on the teaching of Islam arewidely read by millions of Muslims in the entire world, someobservers yet hold the view as if human rights is a concept aliento the teaching of Islam. This view is regrettable. It holds evenmore regretful when academics and intellectuals from theEastern world make only references to the Western world.Hence, it is not surprising if critics claim those intellectuals fromAsia and Africa as %u201cwesterners in the eastern world%u201d. However,the recent developments in the Islamic society offer new hopesto review the custom, tradition, history of humankindcivilization in a manner of fairness and full of integrity andhonesty. This view is not necessarily to satisfy the intellectual