They reported that Saudi King Abdullah is pushing for a proposal sponsored by the 56-member Organization of Islamic Conference that wants a law that ostensibly guarantees respect for religions, places of worship, and their symbols, "therefore preventing the derision of what people consider sacred."
"The lofty-sounding principle is, in fact, a cleverly coded way of granting religious leaders the right to criminalize speech and activities that they deem to insult religion," they wrote in the Monitor.
"Holding a session on advancing interfaith dialogue abroad is a pale substitute for hosting it in the kingdom, where the message of respect for freedom of religion and belief is most needed," Leo and Argue stated.
Saudi Arabia does not permit the public practice of any religion except for Islam. A government agency, called the Commission to Promote Virtue and Prevent Vice, patrols the country with whips to enforce the law.
In one recent case, King Abdullah intervened after publicity of a decision to sentence a woman to 200 lashes and six months in prison for traveling in a car with a man who was not her relative. The pardon came after she was gang-raped by seven men as punishment.
Former French Prime Minister Alain Juppe, speaking for the European Union, warned at the conference that dialogue cannot be carried out without free speech, referring to the 2005 publication in a Danish newspaper of caricatures of Prophet Mohammed with a bomb in his turban.
In response, Muslim riots throughout the world resulted in several deaths.
Media covering the U.N. conference focused on King Abdullah's statements that religion should not be used as a front for terrorism. His country is infested with anti-Kingdom terrorists, many of them affiliated with Al Qaeda.
King Abdullah has been trying to improve Saudi Arabia's image since the September 11 terrorist attacks were carried out by 15 Saudi terrorists among the 19 who were on the airplanes that crashed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
President Shimon Peres also spoke at the conference, and media noted it was the first time that a Saudi Arabia official has not walked out when an Israeli spoke.
Our Friends the Saudis - The Big Push to Criminalize Blasphemy
World | Thu, Nov 13, 2008 at 8:56:50 am PST
At a special session of the United Nations General Assembly, the leader of the religious apartheid kingdom of Saudi Arabia will sit down in the same room with an Israeli for the first time. What would bring Abdullah to do this, an act that must be repugnant to him? Answer: the possibility that he may be able to talk the gullible infidels into criminalizing blasphemy.
WASHINGTON - World leaders gathering at the United Nations this week for a special session of the General Assembly to advance interfaith dialogue should have no illusions that their efforts will miraculously promote mutual respect between religious communities or end abuses of religious freedom.
Saudi King Abdullah, who initiated this week’s special session, is quietly enlisting the leaders’ support for a global law to punish blasphemy – a campaign championed by the 56-member Organization of Islamic Conference that puts the rights of religions ahead of individual liberties.
If the campaign succeeds, states that presume to speak in the name of religion will be able to crush religious freedom not only in their own country, but abroad.
The UN session is designed to endorse a meeting of religious leaders in Spain last summer that was the brainchild of King Abdullah and organized by the Muslim World League. That meeting resulted in a final statement counseling promotion of “respect for religions, their places of worship, and their symbols ... therefore preventing the derision of what people consider sacred.”
The lofty-sounding principle is, in fact, a cleverly coded way of granting religious leaders the right to criminalize speech and activities that they deem to insult religion. Instead of promoting harmony, however, this effort will exacerbate divisions and intensify religious repression.
This isn’t a low-level campaign; it will be attended by world leaders, and some of them have already signaled their acquiescence to the agenda: The Big Saudi Swindle.
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