Islamic Countries Who Demand US Punish Blasphemers Given Grants to Protect Religious Freedom at Home
15 December 2011
According to an article at The Daily Caller, the US Department of State is meeting with numerous Islamic countries who demand the USA curb individual free speech and punish people who criticize Islam and its prophet. Among these countires is Pakistan, Iran, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
Here are some brief excerpts from the article:
The State Department began a three-day, closed-door meeting Monday to talk about
U.S. free speech…with representatives from numerous Islamic governments that have
lobbied for 12 years to end U.S. citizens’ ability to speak freely about Islam’s history
and obligations.
Free speech advocates slammed the event…but it was defended by Hannah Rosenthal,
who heads the agency’s office to curb anti-Semitism.
The meeting is a great success, she said, because governments in the multinational
Organisation for Islamic Cooperation (OIC) have dropped their demand that criticism
of Islamic ideas be treated as illegal defamation. Member countries include Pakistan,
Iran, Saudia Arabia and Qatar.
In exchange for dropping the demand, she said, they’re getting “technical assistance
[to] build institutions to ensure there will be religious freedom” in their countries, she
told The Daily Caller.
“That’s a joke,” said Andrea Lafferty, a conservative activist…
Rosenthal’s claim that the OIC is accepting freedom of speech and religion implies
revolutionary changes in Islamic countries…because Islamic texts set myriad laws for
behavior, and sharply restrict non-Muslim religions, free speech and women’s rights…
If the OIC countries are giving up on their religious obligation to ban criticism of Islam,
she said, “does this mean that Pakistan is no longer going to kill Christians and kill
religious minorities? … Are women in Saudi Arabia going to vote, to drive, …?”
“We hope so,” said Rosenthal, who added that such progress will not occur rapidly…
Clinton’s statement was issued at Istanbul, where the United States and the OIC launched
the joint project to combat “religious intolerance.”
…OIC officials spent 12 years lobbying for a U.N. resolution that would declared criticism
of religion to be defamation…
In March, the OIC dropped the defamation resolution in exchange for passage of a
resolution in the Human Rights Committee, dubbed 16/18.
This week’s State Department meeting is intended to begin implementing the 16/18
decision…
Another meeting is slated for February or March…
Links to more articles, on this story, can be found below.
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The Daily Caller
Creeping Sharia
