De ministers van Buitenlandse Zaken van de Organisatie van de Islamitische Conferentie (OIC) komen dinsdag bijeen in de Pakistaanse hoofdstad Islamabad voor een driedaagse conferentie. Een aantal internationale onderwerpen en de gespannen relaties met het westen komen aan bod schrijft Knack.be.
Onder de naam “Sessie voor Vrede, Vooruitgang en Harmonie” zal de conferentie ingehuldigd worden door de Pakistaanse president Pervez Musharraf. Eerste minister Shaukat Aziz wordt de hoofdgast bij de afsluitende sessie donderdag. Op de agenda staan onder andere de Palestijnse kwestie, het Arabisch-Israëlische conflict, de toestand in Irak, Somalië en Afghanistan, Jammu en Kashmir, het vredesproces tussen India en Pakistan en de samenwerking van Iran met het Internationaal Atoomagentschap.
De Organisatie van de Islamitische Conferentie zal ook de “islamofobie” van het Westen bespreken en trachten een strategie te ontwikkelen voor wederzijds begrip en dialoog tussen de islamitische wereld en het Westen. De conferentie wil verder praten over de strijd tegen het internationale terrorisme en de situatie van moslimminderheden in niet OIC-landen, onder andere in het zuiden van de Filipijnen en Thailand.
May 25, 2007
How to end “Islamophobia”
Tawfik Hamid speaks truth to power in the usually reliably dhimmi Wall Street Journal, echoing points we have often made here:
To bring an end to Islamophobia, we must employ a holistic approach that treats the core of the disease. It will not suffice to merely suppress the symptoms. It is imperative to adopt new Islamic teachings that do not allow killing apostates (Redda Law). Islamic authorities must provide mainstream Islamic books that forbid polygamy and beating women. Accepted Islamic doctrine should take a strong stand against slavery and the raping of female war prisoners, as happens in Darfur under the explicit canons of Shariah (“Ma Malakat Aimanikum”). Muslims should teach, everywhere and universally, that a woman’s testimony in court counts as much as a man’s, that women should not be punished if they marry whom they please or dress as they wish.
We Muslims should publicly show our strong disapproval for the growing number of attacks by Muslims against other faiths and against other Muslims. Let us not even dwell on 9/11, Madrid, London, Bali and countless other scenes of carnage. It has been estimated that of the two million refugees fleeing Islamic terror in Iraq, 40% are Christian, and many of them seek a haven in Lebanon, where the Christian population itself has declined by 60%. Even in Turkey, Islamists recently found it necessary to slit the throats of three Christians for publishing Bibles.
Of course, Islamist attacks are not limited to Christians and Jews. Why do we hear no Muslim condemnation of the ongoing slaughter of Buddhists in Thailand by Islamic groups? Why was there silence over the Mumbai train bombings which took the lives of over 200 Hindus in 2006? We must not forget that innocent Muslims, too, are suffering. Indeed, the most common murderers of Muslims are, and have always been, other Muslims. Where is the Muslim outcry over the Sunni-Shiite violence in Iraq?
Islamophobia could end when masses of Muslims demonstrate in the streets against videos displaying innocent people being beheaded with the same vigor we employ against airlines, Israel and cartoons of Muhammad. It might cease when Muslims unambiguously and publicly insist that Shariah law should have no binding legal status in free, democratic societies.
It is well past time that Muslims cease using the charge of “Islamophobia” as a tool to intimidate and blackmail those who speak up against suspicious passengers and against those who rightly criticize current Islamic practices and preachings. Instead, Muslims must engage in honest and humble introspection. Muslims should–must–develop strategies to rescue our religion by combating the tyranny of Salafi Islam and its dreadful consequences. Among more important outcomes, this will also put an end to so-called Islamophobia.