Islamic Bloc: We Respect Press Freedom But…
A bloc representing the world’s Islamic nations is marking World Press Freedom Day Wednesday by calling for urgent action to establish international law or a code of conduct aimed at preventing media from defaming religion.
OK. Since the Islamics consider that their religion is the only true faith, anyone else claiming that THEIR religion is true could be considered to be “defaming” Islam. which is then “unprotected” speech subject to suppression.
The Saudi-based secretariat of the 57-member Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) said in a statement it was committed to press freedom, but that journalists should be deterred “from premeditatedly vilifying, defaming and violating the rights of others.
After gong on at some length decrying all over again the Danish cartoon controversy, they must have seriously slipped up and allowed in someone willing, ready, and able to point out some of the very real problems in contemporary Islam.
British foreign office minister Kim Howells said Muslims, and some non-Muslims, had been “rightly offended” by the publication of the cartoons. But he also criticized some Islamic media for their handling of the issue, saying “the existence of anti-Western and anti-Jewish media and material in the Muslim world, some of it in state owned press, undermined as hypocritical the moral indignation that was expressed.” Howells said it was right that the issue of Islamophobia was addressed, but Islamic governments and organizations should also address problems that give Islam a negative image.
Howells said it was right that the issue of Islamophobia was addressed, but Islamic governments and organizations should also address problems that give Islam a negative image. He cited support for Taliban-type legal and social systems, “recent statements coming out of Tehran,” practices that segregate and subjugate women, and conspiracy theories about 9/11 being a CIA plot and polio vaccines being contaminated with viruses.
“And reports of raped women being punished and stoned, restrictions on other religions, including death sentences pronounced on Christian converts, poor human rights records and authoritarian, undemocratic environments all have a negative impact which we cannot ignore.”
Again…”By their fruits, ye shall know them.”
Howells also challenged views in the Islamic world that he said were wrong, such as the perception that “our foreign policy is deliberately anti-Muslim….The reasons for action in Afghanistan and Iraq had nothing to do with the faith of Islam but with the political and security issues that these countries posed.”
Helllloooo – is anybody listening? If YOU attack us, we fight back. It doesn;t matter whether you are Islamic, Confucian, Zen, or Zeus worshippers. OK? Get a clue!