A few resources is shared faith contexts (more to come?)
National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT)’s Interfaith Guiding Principles (PDF)
“All of us have within our soul the living image of God. Every human being is sacred. When we do any harm to someone else, we have done that harm to God. Our practices of torture have unleashed into the world a flood of dehumanization, the effects of which we will feel and know for generations to come.”– Christian/Muslim/Jewish statement, NRCAT 2010
Christianity and Judaism share scriptures on the dignity and value of all human life; vengeance being God’s rather than people’s; and the importance of pursuing justice and loving neighbors: e.g.: Gen 1:26-31, Gen 5:1-2; Lev 19:18, Psalm 94:1, Ezek 33:11; Deut 16:20, Micah 6:8, Psalm 82:3-4, Lev 19:14-19. The Qur’an includes similar scriptures: Al-Isra 17:70; Ar-Rahman 55:7-9, Al Ma’idah 5:8.
Judaism, Christianity, and Islam include a version of the ethic of reciprocity:
“do not do unto others what you do not want others do to you”
— B. Talmud Shabbat 31a (Judaism)
“do to others as you would have them do to you”
— Matthew 7:12 ; Luke 6:31 (Christianity)
“none of you is a believer until he desires for his brother what he desires for himself”
— 40 ʾaḥādīthe di an-Nawawi 13 (Islam)
Also called “Golden Rule” or “Silver Rule,” this teaching is found in many other traditions including Baha’i, Buddhism, Confucianism, Hinduism, Jainism, Zoroastrianism, Taoism, Sikhism.
In addition, many traditions includes separate, if overlapping, relevant teachings.
See also Jewish Sources / Christian Sources / Muslim Teaching
NRCAT and IAHR
Torture as a moral issue launched both the National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT) and the regional effort which became Interfaith Action for Human Rights (IAHR). At a time when US policy sought to justify torture for national security purposes, faith communities united to uphold human dignity and human rights. In 2006, more than 150 leaders, representing varied traditions, formed NRCAT. Disparate faith groups in the DC area also created a regional affiliate (originally: Washington Region Religious Campaign Against Torture).
Early focus was on ending torture in US detention facilities in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba and Abu Ghraib, Iraq. The call for “an end to torture, without exception” also addressed the torture of solitary confinement in domestic prisons. Over time, changing needs, nationally and regionally, shifted group missions. Eventually, IAHR became a separate organization focusing on prison justice in the DC-Maryland-Virginia area.
IAHR promotes human rights through efforts “to end of all forms of brutality and torture in prisons and jails,” related education for faith communities, and penpal links across prison walls. Penpal associations foster human connection and further understanding of prison life for those outside. Correspondence also informs IAHR’s advocacy.
Through relationships with incarcerated people and collaborations with other groups, IAHR learns of everyday torture in Maryland and Virginia prisons and in DC Jail and the federal Bureau of Prisons facilities around the country where DC residents are placed after sentencing.
Rereading Torah Towards Liberation 