Thursday, November 13, 2008
Changing religion is a vital right: Bush
Bush praised his close ally, Saudi King Abdullah, who sponsored the UN interfaith conference, but effectively challenged the strict Islamic kingdom's outlawing of apostasy, or change of religion.
King Abdullah, who initiated the special session, is quietly enlisting the leaders' support for a global law to punish blasphemy a campaign championed by the 56-member Organization of Islamic Conference that puts the rights of religions ahead of individual liberties.
Many European leaders are staying away from the conference, and human rights groups complain the event gives undue credibility to Abdullah even as his country enforces some of world's harshest restrictions on religious practices. Home to Mecca and many holy Muslim sites, Saudi Arabia bans public displays of other religions and enforces sharp restrictions on women as part of its adherence to the strict Wahabi form of Islam.
IMO: Clearly there are problems on all sides. Law and order considerations, and the supposedly 'religous' protests (in fact about civil rights) in Saudi Arabia exist on the one hand, US and other attempts at infiltration are perhaps on the other. Then at the lowest level there are cases like the UK grockles who try to have sex on the beach in Dubai.
Bush praised his close ally, Saudi King Abdullah, who sponsored the UN interfaith conference, but effectively challenged the strict Islamic kingdom's outlawing of apostasy, or change of religion.
King Abdullah, who initiated the special session, is quietly enlisting the leaders' support for a global law to punish blasphemy a campaign championed by the 56-member Organization of Islamic Conference that puts the rights of religions ahead of individual liberties.
Many European leaders are staying away from the conference, and human rights groups complain the event gives undue credibility to Abdullah even as his country enforces some of world's harshest restrictions on religious practices. Home to Mecca and many holy Muslim sites, Saudi Arabia bans public displays of other religions and enforces sharp restrictions on women as part of its adherence to the strict Wahabi form of Islam.
IMO: Clearly there are problems on all sides. Law and order considerations, and the supposedly 'religous' protests (in fact about civil rights) in Saudi Arabia exist on the one hand, US and other attempts at infiltration are perhaps on the other. Then at the lowest level there are cases like the UK grockles who try to have sex on the beach in Dubai.
# posted by uv : 4:01 PM
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