CRITICISM OF SUICIDE BOMBERS CENSORED AT THE UN
IHEU today attempted to call on the United Nations to condemn
killing in the name of religion, but were prevented from doing so by the
heavy-handed intervention of Islamic representatives. The IHEU call, at
today's meeting of the UN Sub-Commission on Human Rights in Geneva, follows
moves by Islamic clerics to legitimise the current wave of terror attacks.
At this afternoon's meeting, IHEU representative David Littman attempted to
deliver a prepared text in the joint names of three international NGOs: the
Association for World Education, the Association of World Citizens, and IHEU,
but was prevented from doing so by the intervention of Islamic members of the
Sub-Commission. After repeated interruptions he was unable to complete his
speech.
The Islamic members of the Sub-Commission objected to the speech as an
attack on Islam. The text however is a report on recent critical comment on
Islamist extremism by a number of notable Muslim writers and is a call to the
UN Human Rights Commission by the NGOs "to condemn calls to kill, to
terrorise or to use violence in the name of God or any religion".
The text referred to recent decisions by high-ranking Muslim clerics
confirming that those who carry out suicide bombings cannot be treated as
apostates and remain Muslims(1), a fatwa by a Saudi cleric that innocent
Britons were a legitimate target for terrorist action(2), and remarks by Yusuf
al-Qaradawi, dean of the College of Sharia and Islamic Studies at Qatar
University who has visited Britain, that terror attacks are permissible.
Commenting on this censorship, Roy Brown, President of IHEU said:
"This is part and parcel of the refusal by the Islamic representatives at
the UN to condemn the suicide bombers, or to accept any criticism of those who
kill innocent people in the name of God.
These actions follow the refusal of the Islamic states at the meeting of
the Commission in April to condemn those who kill in the name of religion, and
to categorise their attempts to criticise Islamic terrorists as
"defamation of religion".
"It is high time", Mr Brown insisted "that the Islamic
States at the UN recognised that the suicide bombers are acting in the name of
their
religion, and to unequivocally condemn their actions."
