International Civil Liberties Alliance

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I received an email recently from an organization known as the International Civil Liberties Alliance calling attention to its International Human Rights and Freedom of Speech Conference held in the European Parliament in Brussels on July 9, 2012, from where it issued what it has termed the Brussels Declaration, its primary concern being to oppose the extension of sharia and sharia's limits upon free speech:

Affirming the irrefutable fact that sharia law as articulated and applied is incompatible with and destructive to free speech, civil liberties and human rights and as such is incompatible with the fundamental principles of democracy (as stated in the 13 Feb 2003 judgment of the ECHR);

Acknowledging that the declaration known as "Cairo Declaration of Human Rights in Islam" also commonly referred to as the "Cairo Declaration" curtails all human rights under sharia law and sharia normative behavior restrictions (CDHRI Articles 22, 23, 24) on the pretense that "All human beings form one family whose members are united by their subordination to Allah" (CDHRI Article 1);

I've heard of the "Cairo Declaration" of 1993, but I don't think that I've ever looked at it carefully, so let's take a look at CDHR Article 22, 23, and 24:

ARTICLE 22:

(a) Everyone shall have the right to express his opinion freely in such manner as would not be contrary to the principles of the Shari'ah.

1. Everyone shall have the right to advocate what is right, and propagate what is good, and warn against what is wrong and evil according to the norms of Islamic Shari'ah.

(c) Information is a vital necessity to society. It may not be exploited or misused in such a way as may violate sanctities and the dignity of Prophets, undermine moral and ethical Values or disintegrate, corrupt or harm society or weaken its faith.

(d) It is not permitted to excite nationalistic or doctrinal hatred or to do anything that may be an incitement to any form or racial discrimination.

ARTICLE 23:

(a) Authority is a trust; and abuse or malicious exploitation thereof is explicitly prohibited, in order to guarantee fundamental human rights.

(b) Everyone shall have the right to participate, directly or indirectly in the administration of his country's public affairs. He shall also have the right to assume public office in accordance with the provisions of Shari'ah.

ARTICLE 24:

All the rights and freedoms stipulated in this Declaration are subject to the Islamic Shari'ah.

The ICLA is certainly right to oppose such a document, but how significant is the Cairo Declaration? According to the ICLA, rather significant:

Observing that the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), being the creator of Cairo Declaration and its current main proponent has, by its continuous and single-minded activity, proven to be the principal international politico-religious organization working to restrict free speech, civil liberties and human rights and to enforce sharia in the world;

The OIC is an organization significant enough to oppose, and though I don't know a lot about the ICLA, I thought that I'd call attention to them and their recent conference because the past two blog posts of mine have expressed support for free speech and open discussion.

You can judge for yourself by visiting the ICLA site.