Minority Rights in the Middle East

[Mediocrates]

Once there was a Coptic Church in Egypt where the toilets were out of order. But under an old Ottoman law, repairs to churches cannot be carried out without the permission of the Egyptian President. When the exasperated priest was told that he needed the President to get the job done, he cried:” I don’t need the President, I need a plumber! “ This story is symptomatic of the plight of Egypt’s 12 million Coptic Christians. Not only are they not allowed to repair or build churches without official permission - seldom given - but they are politically under-represented and banned from public service jobs. From time to time they are harrassed, there are kidnappings and forcible conversions to Islam. The beleaguered minorities of the Middle East are in a sorry state. Kurds in Syria are deprived of citizenship and not allowed to speak their language.

Zoroastrians, once dominant, now down to 25,000, suffer subtle discrimination in the Islamic republic of Iran, and Christians persecuted by Islamists in Iraq are leaving in their hundreds of thousands. As for the Jews, it is too late to save their ancient pre-Islamic communities. From a million in 1948 numbers have dwindled to a mere 4,500, due to state discrimination and the repercussions of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

For Masri Feki, a young Egyptian political scientist and author who lectured on minority rights at the London Middle East Institute at SOAS (http://www.harif.org/feki.html) last week, the plight of minorities is symptomatic of a Middle East with a deep identity crisis. The 15 states of the region have experimented with pan-Arabism (based on language), and now pan-Islamism (based on religion). Both ideologies are bankrupt. It is time, Feki argues, to build a new Middle East which explodes the myth of the Arab nation and includes Turkey, Iran, the Kurds ( having achieved by now their collective right to self-determination) and Israel. Currently almost all the Arab states of the region have constitutions where the principal source of legislation is Islamic (Shar’ia) law. These constitutions have discrimination against religious groups built into them.They often deny citizenship to certain ethnic groups. The new Middle East should guarantee equal rights and freedoms for all.

All this talk of minority rights troubles Brian Whitaker writing on Comment is Free (http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisf...hts.middleeast). What is the point of focusing on minority rights in Arab and Muslim countries, he argues, when the majority are oppressed? Democracies should be concerned with the good treatment of minorities. In dictatorships, where minorities are persecuted, people should forget about minority rights.

In my view, Whitaker has it precisely backwards. Minority rights are the thin end of the wedge. Treatment of minorities is the litmus test of the health of a society. State abuse of its minorities can soon degenerate into the abuse of everybody’s rights. This is precisely what happened as soon as Arab states acquired their independence. Jews, Christians and other minorities were the first victims of hatred and intolerance. All the others had their turn soon enough, heretics and secularists, and finally, those who did not fit exactly into the nationalist or Islamist ideological mould.
Minority rights are not a luxury that only democracies can afford. After the right to life, the right to freedom of expression, culture and religion are the next most important human rights. In the Arab Middle East and Iran where so many basic rights and freedoms are lacking, the struggle has to begin somewhere. Why not with minority rights?


From "Harry's Place"

[dayag]

Once there was a Coptic Church in Egypt where the toilets were out of order. But under an old Ottoman law, repairs to churches cannot be carried out without the permission of the Egyptian President. When the exasperated priest was told that he needed the President to get the job done, he cried:” I don’t need the President, I need a plumber! “ This story is symptomatic of the plight of Egypt’s 12 million Coptic Christians. Not only are they not allowed to repair or build churches without official permission - seldom given - but they are politically under-represented and banned from public service jobs. From time to time they are harrassed, there are kidnappings and forcible conversions to Islam. The beleaguered minorities of the Middle East are in a sorry state. Kurds in Syria are deprived of citizenship and not allowed to speak their language.

Zoroastrians, once dominant, now down to 25,000, suffer subtle discrimination in the Islamic republic of Iran, and Christians persecuted by Islamists in Iraq are leaving in their hundreds of thousands. As for the Jews, it is too late to save their ancient pre-Islamic communities. From a million in 1948 numbers have dwindled to a mere 4,500, due to state discrimination and the repercussions of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

For Masri Feki, a young Egyptian political scientist and author who lectured on minority rights at the London Middle East Institute at SOAS (http://www.harif.org/feki.html) last week, the plight of minorities is symptomatic of a Middle East with a deep identity crisis. The 15 states of the region have experimented with pan-Arabism (based on language), and now pan-Islamism (based on religion). Both ideologies are bankrupt. It is time, Feki argues, to build a new Middle East which explodes the myth of the Arab nation and includes Turkey, Iran, the Kurds ( having achieved by now their collective right to self-determination) and Israel. Currently almost all the Arab states of the region have constitutions where the principal source of legislation is Islamic (Shar’ia) law. These constitutions have discrimination against religious groups built into them.They often deny citizenship to certain ethnic groups. The new Middle East should guarantee equal rights and freedoms for all.

All this talk of minority rights troubles Brian Whitaker writing on Comment is Free (http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisf...hts.middleeast). What is the point of focusing on minority rights in Arab and Muslim countries, he argues, when the majority are oppressed? Democracies should be concerned with the good treatment of minorities. In dictatorships, where minorities are persecuted, people should forget about minority rights.

In my view, Whitaker has it precisely backwards. Minority rights are the thin end of the wedge. Treatment of minorities is the litmus test of the health of a society. State abuse of its minorities can soon degenerate into the abuse of everybody’s rights. This is precisely what happened as soon as Arab states acquired their independence. Jews, Christians and other minorities were the first victims of hatred and intolerance. All the others had their turn soon enough, heretics and secularists, and finally, those who did not fit exactly into the nationalist or Islamist ideological mould.
Minority rights are not a luxury that only democracies can afford. After the right to life, the right to freedom of expression, culture and religion are the next most important human rights. In the Arab Middle East and Iran where so many basic rights and freedoms are lacking, the struggle has to begin somewhere. Why not with minority rights?


From "Harry's Place"

Also, Baha'is have it even worse in Iran than other minority religions since they are not recognized as a legitimate religion by the government.

[bararallu]

Egypt is a craphole of a country, run by cretins. Everything wrong in the ME is Egypt in a nutshell.

[savvy]

Religious freedom worsens in Jordan, Algeria: US
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5...fJk8exn6Zl5QoQ

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Religious freedom took a turn for the worse in the last year in China, Egypt and Iran, but also in normally more tolerant countries like Jordan and Algeria, the State Department said Friday.

The State Department's annual report on religious freedoms around the world for the period between July 2007 and July 2008 also singled out North Korea again as among the worst violators of religious freedom.

But there were new concerns about Jordan and Algeria, "which traditionally have been more respectful of minority faiths," according to John Hanford III, the ambassador at large for religious freedom.

"The government's de factor and de jure policies have precipitated a decline in the status of religious freedom during this reporting period," the report said.

In February, the government began enforcing an ordinance which "makes proselytizing a criminal offense," it said.

It said that the ordinance mandates "that anyone who makes, stores or distributes printed documents, or audiovisual materials with the intent of 'shaking the faith' of a Muslim may also face a maximum of five years' imprisonment" and a fine equivalent to 7,100 dollars.

"In Jordan, a Sharia Court found a convert from Islam to Christianity guilty of apostasy, annulled his marriage, and declared him to be without any religious identity," said Hanford, who oversaw the report.

"The Jordanian government also harassed individuals and organizations based on religious affiliation," he said.

In China,"the government's repression of religious freedom intensified in some areas, including in Tibetan areas and in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region," it said.

The Uighurs form an ethnic Muslim majority in Western China.

During the Olympics, Xinjiang suffered a series of violent attacks, including the most deadly which killed 16 police officers in Kashgar on August 4.

In March, violent riots erupted in Tibet which left 203 dead, according to Tibetans in exile, although Beijing spoke of 21 people killed by "rioters," saying it had killed a Tibetan rebel.

The report also said: "Some unregistered Protestant religious groups in Beijing also reported intensified harassment from government authorities in the lead up to the 2008 Olympic Games."

In Egypt, the report said that "several government measures and practices undertaken during the reporting period contributed to a decline in government respect for religious freedom."

It cited in particular the restriction of the right to convert to only non-Muslims.

In Saudi Arabia, "there were incremental improvements in specific areas, such as better protection of the right to possess and use personal religious materials," it said.

Myanmar, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, and Uzbekistan maintained the status quo. Along with China, these countries are on the State Department blacklist, or the Countries of Particular Concern, which incur sanctions.

The blacklist is renewed at the end of the year on the basis of the report.

In presenting the report, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice rejected what she said were attempts by the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) to criminalize "defamation" of religions, such caricatures or other images of the prophet Mohammed, which is forbidden in Islam.

The OIC represents 57 Muslim countries around the world.

"We're concerned by efforts to promote a so-called defamation of religions concept, which has been the focus of numerous resolutions passed at the United Nations," Rice said.

"Instead of protecting religion practice and promoting tolerance, this concept seeks to limit freedom of speech, and that could undermine the standards of international religious freedom," she said.

[varian]

... attempts by the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) to criminalize "defamation" of religions, such caricatures or other images of the prophet Mohammed, which is forbidden in Islam.

The OIC represents 57 Muslim countries around the world.

"We're concerned by efforts to promote a so-called defamation of religions concept, which has been the focus of numerous resolutions passed at the United Nations," Rice said.

"Instead of protecting religion practice and promoting tolerance, this concept seeks to limit freedom of speech, and that could undermine the standards of international religious freedom," she said. ...

Since many Muslims claim that "radical, violent Islam" has hijacked the "real, peaceful Islam" then the OIC should concentrate on rounding up all their own apostates first. Only then should they be allowed to show their beady little heads and run off their hypocritical venom spewing mouths in an attempt to accuse others around the world of committing blasphemy. The actions of "radical Islam" are far more blasphemous than any alleged defamation, ridicule, caricatures, or images of anything related to Muhammad and Islam in general. Let Islam heal its own followers and the atrocities performed in the name of their god first!!!

[ShimonG]

Since many Muslims claim that "radical, violent Islam" has hijacked the "real, peaceful Islam" then the OIC should concentrate on rounding up all their own apostates first............

Which they will not. For PRECISELY the reason that "radical violent" is islam itself.