Author: Reuters
Publication: www.jihadwatch.org
Date: July 28, 2004
URL: http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/archives/002673.php#comments
A bid for freedom of conscience
at the UN. You will be able to read documents related to this initiative
in my forthcoming essay collection The Myth of Islamic Tolerance. From
Reuters, with thanks to David G. Littman:
Religious rights campaigners, buoyed
by a UN call for an end to repression of minorities by majority religions,
today urged the world body to tackle persecution of ''apostates'' in Muslim
countries.
The move came as humanist groups
hailed the UN's 2004 Human Development Report for declaring that ''individuals
must be free not only to criticise the religion into which they are born,
but to reject it for another or to remain without one.'' The campaigners'
appeal -- in the form of a petition signed by nearly 90,000 people in 32
countries, including present and former Muslims -- was delivered to new
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour.
It said Muslim religious leaders
and organisations should make a clear public call for reinterpretation
of Islamic law ''so that Muslims who change their faith will not have to
face intimidation, harassment, persecution or death as a result.'' The
petition, launched by British- based Christian group The Barnabas Fund,
called on the U.N. Human Rights Commission, governments and international
bodies to speak out on the issue and raise it ''as a matter of urgency''
with Muslim groupings.
Fund advocacy manager Paul Cook
-- who welcomed the UN report's ''very encouraging affirmation'' of the
right to apostasy -- said his group's efforts to get dialogue going with
Muslim bodies on the problem had so far met with silence.
