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Using Islam as an example, I show how interpreters can develop human rights within their own culture even as they draw on extra-local ideas and practices. Th ey can do so despite points of significant conflict between the local culture and that of human rights, in ways that need to resonate with the local culture yet also challenge it. Translators can do the work they do because they have the "dual consciousness" of outside intermediaries and local participants.Keywords human rights, cultural change, democratized access to local interpretation, outside challenges to normative systems, Islam From a sociological standpoint as distinct from a theological one, worldreligions show themselves to be dynamic repertoires rather than fixed templates. Changes in aspects of religious belief have often entailed certain changes in political organization and commitment. How might religion's dynamic potential relate to the surrounding community's capacity for internal change? Specifically, does the spread of human rights in some cases depend on changes in the repertoires of some religions?Consider Islam, a faith of enduring geo-political moment. From a sociological perspective focused on cultural changes that are human-rights friendly, how might the following goal be pursued: A political context in which all ordinary Muslims enjoyed a culturally recognized, legally protected right to interpret Islam -to interpret with respect to its meanings and to the behavior that Islam promotes? In what kind of political context

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