Another UN Obscenity (Updated)

The UN Human Rights Council is an an outrage. Their latest obscenity is passage of a Declaration asking UN member nations to criminalize criticism of Islam, claiming such criticism to be itself a human rights violation.

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The UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) is now little more than a mouthpiece for Wahhabi Islamists who seek to use the freedoms of the West to destroy it. The attempt to reform the UNHRC two years ago failed utterly. The UNHRC's latest act is to call for the criminalization of any criticism Islam, to make the canard that Islam and terrorism are unrelated an irrebutable presumption, and to require educational programs in schools to whitewash Islam in the West. The declaration was authored and submitted to the UNHRC by the Organizaiton of the Islamic Conference (OIC). The declaration purports to apply to all religions - but names only Islam.

Islam is suffering today as Wahhabi dogma has become transcendent within the religion on the back of Saudi petrodollars. As Churchill observed nearly a century ago, Wahhabism bears "the same relationship to orthodox Islam as the most militant form of Calvinism would have borne to Rome in the fiercest times of [Europe's] religious wars." There are people and groups in the world trying to reform the Islamic religion and bring it out from under the radical 7th century interpretations of Wahhabism into the 21st century. The UNHRC would prevent that. This Declaration by the UNHRC, were it actually to become a part of international law, would wholly derail efforts to modernize Islam. Further, the UNHRC would give legal cover to the most intolerable aspects associated with Islam. These aspects include such real human rights violations as:

1. Anyone wanting to change their religion from Islam to another religion is, at best, prevented from doing so by the law of many "Islamic" states. If they do change their religion, they are considered an apostate and subject to execution, particularly in the Wahhabi and related Deobandi sect.

2. Religion in many Islamic states is severely circumscribed - either there is no freedom of religion, or it is very limited. For example, one cannot carry a bible or cross into Saudi Arabia or even say a prayer within the country. No churches can be built in Turkey. In Pakistan, the charge of blasphemy against the Prophet is being used to steal vast tracts of land from Christians. Christians are being systematically driven from Palestinian controlled portions of the Holy Land. Christains and Jews are second class citizens in Muslim countries.

3. According to the Wahhabi interpretation of Islam - Saudi Arabia's radical version of Islam being exported throughout the world at a breakneck pace on the back of Saudi petrodollars:

a. It is okay to make slaves of polytheists, such as Christians, and to take their lands and possessions. This is taught to children in Saudi textbooks.

b. A Wahhabi Imam in Britain, Abu Hamza, recently said it was lawful to kill polytheists and rape their wives and daughters. Another Wahhabi Imam, Abdul Makin of East London Mosque, was asked about this statement. The following exchange was recorded by ex-Muslims in Britain who run the site Islam Watch:

Question: “One eyed hooked Imam Hamza Mesri said muslims can kill British infidels and have sex with their wives and daughters, Do you agree with him?”

Imam: “It is not what Imam Hamza said nor is there a question of my agreeing with him or not. It is in Quran thus those are Allah’s orders.”

Question: “But why would Allah tell muslims to kill and rape innocent non muslims?”
Imam: “Because Non-muslims are never innocent, they are guilty of denying Allah and his prophet. If you don’t believe me, here is the legal authority, the top muslim lawyer of Britain, Anjem Choudhary.”

Question: “But our Prophet was sent as a mercy for all the humanity; he never hurt any body in his life”

Imam: “Yes he never hurt a muslim in his life. But Allah said non-muslim are lowest beasts and worst creatures in ayas 8.22,8.55,95.5 and 98.6 and muslim are ordered to kill them."

Question:” But did prophet approve of killing them and raping their wives?”

Imam: “Yes he did. He not only approved of such acts, he and his sahabas practiced it regularly under Allah’s orders. He was helpless in it... If you don’t believe me , you have to believe sahih hadiths. . . .

c. Wahhabi dogma holds it permissible to murder anyone - women, children and innocents - if it is somehow in furtherance of jihad. It is the duty of all Muslims to take part in jihad and to impose Sharia throughout the world.

d. Spreading alternative interpretations of the Koran at odds with Wahhabi dogma is apostacy, and is to be punished by death.

e. Saudi school curricula, being exported throughout the world, is incredibly racist, violent and xenophobic.

f. Women cannot work without permission, and they cannot be out in public unless accompanied by a male family member. They cannot vote. These prohibitions are all based on Wahhabi Koranic interpretations.

g. Numerous Wahhabi clerics have issued fatwas (see here) calling for mass murder and genocide againt the U.S., Christians, Jews and the West in general, with the one fatwa explicitly calls for the slaughter of over 2,000,000 children in the West.

4. Wahhabi cleric Omar Bakri, in praising the mass murder of Americans at the hands of al Qaeda suicide terrorists, listed numerous justifications for 9-11, including among them attacks on Muslims during the Crusades dating back half a millenium before America was formed as a nation. He is hardly unique. Radical Islamists regularly recite an endless litany of grievances upon which to justify their violence, and nothing that we in the West can do - including a complete and immediate withdrawal from the entire Middle East - would erase the vast majortiy of those grievances.

5. It is okay for Muslim men to marry outside of their faith, but it is not permissible for Muslim women to do so.

6. Testimony is given twice the legal weight in Sharia Courts if you are a Muslim (of the particular sect dominant in the state) and a male.

7. Homosexuality is deemed a capital offense and gays are executed.

8. Targeting civilians and using human shields are hallmarks of Islamic terrorists and are justified by the Islamists on interpretations of the Koran - as is suicide bombing.

9. Wahhabi organizations characterize any criticism of their faith or even the acknowledgment that Islamic terrorists are motivated by their religion to acts of animalistic violence as Islamophobia - a term that means concern about Islam is irrational.

10. Forced marriage, pedophillia with marriage to girls as young as nine, polygamy, honor violence and stoning for adultery and prostitution are all evils associated with Islam as practiced in several of the major sects. All need to be exposed and kept wholly out of Western culture.

11. In countries that already have laws limiting criticism of Islam, we have seen the UK issue a warrant for the arrest of a British blogger for critizing Islam, and in Canada, Mark Steyn was charged with a human rights violation for merely quoting a Wahhabi cleric.

12. Since 9-11, Islamists have carried out close to 11,000 terrorist attacks throughout the world.

The above list is hardly exhaustive, and you can find much more in video form watching Geert Wilders' FITNA, posted here. There are huge problems in the Islamic world, and there is a battle on going for the heart and soul of Islam that truly is existential. The Wahhabists are doing all that they can to win that battle, and they have the luxury of nearly unlimited funding and a West that both allows tremendous freedoms and is largely ignorant of the threats posed by Wahhabi Islam. This is a battleplace of ideals, and on that field of battle, the greatest threats Wahhabism faces are bright lights and criticism.

Bear it all in mind as you review the official declaration (see here) of the UN Human Rights Council. Some of highlights of the delcaration and its preamble are:

. . . Noting the Declaration adopted at the 34th Session of Islamic Conference of Foreign Ministers at Islamabad, Pakistan in May 2007, which condemned the growing trend of Islamophobia and systematic discrimination against the adherents of Islam as well as emphasized the need to take effective measures to combat defamation of religions,

. . . Recalling the joint statement of OIC, EU and the UN Secretary General of February 7, 2006 which, inter alia, recognized the need, in all societies, to show sensitivity and responsibility in treating issues of special significance for the adherents of any particular faith, even by those who do not share the belief in question,

. . . Noting with deep concern the increasing trend in recent years of statements attacking religions, Islam and Muslims including in human rights forums, [the HRC:]

1. Expresses concern at negative stereotyping of all religions and manifestations of
intolerance and discrimination in matters of religion or belief;

2. Expresses deep concern at attempts to identify Islam with terrorism, violence and human rights violations and emphasizes that equating any religion with terrorism should be rejected and combated by all at all levels;

3. Notes with deep concern the intensification of the campaign of defamation of religions and the ethnic and religious profiling of Muslim minorities, in the aftermath of the tragic events of 11 September 2001; . . .

5. Recognizes that, in the context of the fight against terrorism, defamation of religions becomes an aggravating factor that contributes to the denial of fundamental rights and freedoms of target groups, as well as their economic and social exclusion; . . .

8. Urges States to take actions to prohibit the dissemination, including through political institutions and organizations, of racist and xenophobic ideas and material aimed at any religion or its followers that constitute incitement to racial and religious hatred, hostility or violence; . . .

11. Further urges all States to ensure that all public officials, including members of law enforcement bodies, the military, civil servants and educators, in the course of their official duties, respect all religions and beliefs and do not discriminate against persons on the grounds of their religion or belief, and that all necessary and appropriate education or training is provided;

12. Emphasizes that, as stipulated in the international human rights law, everyone has the right to freedom of expression, and that the exercise of this right carries with it special duties and responsibilities, and may therefore be subject to certain restrictions but these shall only be as provided by law and are necessary for respect of the rights or reputations of others, or for the protection of national security or of public order, or of public health or morals; . . .

14. Deplores the use of the print, audio-visual and electronic media, including the internet, and any other means to incite acts of violence, xenophobia or related intolerance and discrimination towards Islam or any religion; . . .

This truly is an obscenity. If President Bush still had the same courage of his convictions with which he entered office, then he would defund the UN unless and until meaningful reforms are initiated. As I have written extensively, the last thing we need to do is to limit criticism of Islam if we hope it ever to mature. To the contrary, as former Wahhabi terrorist Tawfiq Hamid has said, the public needs to become fully educated about the danger Wahhabi Islam poses to the world. That will not happen if the UNHRC has any say.

Update: Saudi Arabia, which voted for passage of this declaration in the UNHRC on Thursday, recently voted down a similar law that would prevent Saudis from criticizing other religions within their country.