Por casualidad (porque no iba buscando nada del tema) he encontrado esta entrada en "Menéame":
Aunque
no iba buscando este tipo de información, obviamente el asunto me
preocupa y por eso he tirado del hilo. La página origen de la
información es esta:
Y, por si acaso lo quitan de la web, lo transcribo aquí debajo (está en inglés). La traducción al español está aquí.
The
Organization of Islamic Cooperation
(OIC), an influential bloc of 57 Muslim countries, has officially
inaugurated a Permanent Observer Mission to the European Union (EU).
The primary objective of the OIC, headquartered in Saudi Arabia and
funded by Islamic countries around the world, has long been to pressure
Europe and the United States into passing laws that would ban "negative
stereotyping of Islam."
The establishment of a permanent OIC presence in Brussels implies
that the group intends to redouble its lobbying efforts aimed at
outlawing all forms of "Islamophobia" [a
term
invented by the Muslim Brotherhood in the 1990s] within the 27-member
EU, where restrictions on free speech regarding Islam-related issues are
already commonplace (see
here,
here,
here and
here).
OIC Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu opened the mission to the EU during a
formal inauguration ceremony in Brussels on June 25; it was attended by diplomats, EU officials and dignitaries from Europe and across the Muslim world.
In his inaugural speech, Ihsanoglu declared, "There is a growing and
developing interest at the highest level in the EU to cooperate with the
OIC… I think our relations with the European Union on the different
agenda items that we share will benefit all of us. There is a need for
cooperation between the Muslim world and Europe, and the OIC, as a
collective voice of the Muslim world which stands for modernization and
moderation, will be the proper institution to deal with the EU."
Ihsanoglu -- who recently said in an interview with
Al Jazeera Television
that his number one job is to combat the religious persecution of
Muslims in the West -- added, "We need to seriously fight against
Islamophobia to further strengthen ties between the Islamic world and
Europe and to eradicate the unnecessary sensitivities."
Since the late 1990s, the OIC has been promoting the so-called
Istanbul Process, an aggressive effort by Muslim countries to make it an
international crime to criticize Islam. The explicit aim of the
Istanbul Process is to enshrine in international law a global ban on all
critical scrutiny of Islam and Islamic Sharia law.
In recent years, the OIC has been engaged in a determined diplomatic
offensive to persuade Western democracies to implement United Nations
Human Rights Council (HRC)
Resolution 16/18,
which calls on all countries to combat "intolerance, negative
stereotyping and stigmatization of … religion and belief." (Analysis of
the OIC's war on free speech can be found
here and
here.)
Resolution 16/18, which was adopted at HRC headquarters in Geneva in March 2011 (
with the support of the Obama Administration) -- together with the OIC-sponsored
Resolution 66/167,
which was quietly approved by the 193-member UN General Assembly on
December 19, 2011 -- is widely viewed as marking a significant step
forward in OIC efforts to advance the international legal concept of
defaming Islam.
The OIC scored a diplomatic coup when the Obama Administration agreed to host a three-day
Istanbul Process conference in Washington, DC
on December 12-14, 2011. By doing so, the United States gave the OIC
the political legitimacy was seeking to globalize its initiative to ban
criticism of Islam.
Refusing to be outdone by the Americans, the EU subsequently hosted
an Istanbul Process conference at Wilton Park in London on December 3-5,
2012. The aim of the event was "to arrive at a common understanding of
UN Human Rights Council Resolution 16/18 on combating religious
intolerance and the difference in emphasis with regard freedom of
expression."
According to Ihsanoglu, the EU's offer to host the meeting, which
gathered legal experts, NGOs, government representatives, academics,
legislators and educators as well as OIC representatives, represented a
"qualitative shift in action against the phenomenon of Islamophobia."
The OIC has been especially annoyed over its inability to silence a
growing number of democratically elected politicians in Europe who have
voiced concerns over the refusal of Muslim immigrants to integrate into
their host countries and the consequent establishment of parallel
Islamic societies in many parts of Europe.
According to Ihsanoglu, "The phenomenon of Islamophobia is found in
the West in general, but is growing in European countries in particular
and in a manner different than that in the US, which had contributed to
drafting Resolution 16/18. The new European position represents the
beginning of the shift from their previous reserve over the years over
the attempts by the OIC to counter 'defamation of religions' in the
Human Rights Council and the General Assembly of the United Nations."
Nevertheless, the OIC has been unable to garner sufficient support
for an all-encompassing global blasphemy law within the framework of the
UN, and Ihsanoglu announced in October 2012 that the OIC would
change its strategy by appealing to individual nation-states to enact hate-speech laws concerning Islam.
The OIC has also stepped up efforts to criminalize the criticism of Islam on the basis of Article 20 of the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), a multilateral treaty that forms part of the
International Bill of Human Rights.
According to the OIC, Article 20 of ICCPR states that denigration of
symbols or persons sacred to any religion is a criminal offense, and
Ihsanoglu says the only problem is its lack of enforcement by signatory
states.
On January 7-8, 2013, the OIC held a meeting of international legal
and human rights experts in Istanbul with the stated aim of examining
the legal options for "banning religious intolerance against Muslims."
Delivering the opening remarks,
Ihsanoglu said:
"This meeting of ours in Istanbul is a crucial milestone of a
multifaceted, multisided, diplomatic and legal process against
Islamophobia, and on the campaign initiated against Islam and its
prophet."
Ihsanoglu added: "Since the first day I assumed office, we have been
able to see the adoption of resolutions defending Islam and condemning
the attacks against Islam at the United Nations General Assembly and the
UN Human Rights Council in Geneva."
In a clear sign that the OIC has no intention of abandoning UN
Resolution 16/18, Ihsanoglu said, "The issue to be discussed today by
the wise men is how '16/18' will be implemented. We will discuss the
sanctions from the view of international law... what would happen when
arrogant cartoons get drawn or a movie gets shot."
On January 22, 2013, Ihsanoglu told British government officials attending a "
High Level Meeting on Intolerance"
in London that Islamophobia is an issue of "utmost contemporary
significance" and a matter of "vital concern." He encouraged the EU to
brainstorm on building common ground on combating "intolerance and
discrimination against Muslims."
Thus by establishing a permanent OIC presence in Brussels, Ihsanoglu
appears to be laying the diplomatic groundwork to persuade non-elected
bureaucrats at EU headquarters to enact pan-European hate speech
legislation that would limit by fiat what 500 million European citizens
-- including democratically elected politicians -- can and cannot say
about Islam.
Speaking to
Turkish media outlets
on June 24 ahead of the opening ceremony in Brussels, Ihsanoglu warned
the EU against allowing any speech that could be deemed hostile to
Islam.
For example, Ihsanoglu urged the EU to ban the use of the term
"Islamic terrorist" and replace it with the word "jihadist" instead.
According to Ihsanoglu, "jihad does not necessarily mean killing the
other" and he blamed Westerners for distorting the concept of jihad to
mean "holy war." He said that Muslim scholars have repeatedly affirmed
that the word jihad, which is mentioned in the Koran, simply means the
"struggle" to do good and to remove injustice, oppression and evil from
society.
Meanwhile, the OIC has been organizing "anti-Islamophobia symposia" across Europe. Entitled "
Smearing Islam and Muslims in the Media,"
the first-of-its-kind event was held in Brussels on February 15-16,
2012, and was "aimed at establishing information mechanisms to face up
to the slanderous campaigns against Islam in the media."
Another OIC organ called the
Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (IESCO) organized a seminar in Brussels on "how to deal with stereotypical images of Islam in European television programs."
The seminar was designed to help European journalists "identify
characteristics of stereotypes about Islam in European television
programs, highlight the dangers of defamation of religions, and clarify
the distinction between freedom of expression and the right to cultural
difference, the commitment to the Islamic cultural identity and the
struggle against racism and hatred."
According to
Ihsanoglu,
"The suggestion that Islam is the problem as it is claimed in the
hateful discourse of Islamophobia is to negate Islam's sublime values of
peace, compassion, and tolerance, and all the noble virtues that Islam
has stood for throughout fourteen centuries of tolerant, brilliant and
radiant civilization."
In her latest book, entitled "
Europe, Globalization, and the Coming of the Universal Caliphate,"
Islam scholar Bat Ye'or provides and in-depth examination of the EU's
opaque relationship with the OIC, which she describes as a "would-be
universal caliphate" that exercises significant power through the EU,
the UN and other international organizations.
Ye'or describes an OIC strategy manual, "Strategy of Islamic Cultural
Action in the West," in which the OIC asserts that "Muslim immigrant
communities in Europe are part of the Islamic nation" and recommends "a
series of steps to prevent the integration and assimilation of Muslims
into European culture."
According to Ye'or, "The caliphate is alive and growing within
Europe…It has advanced through the denial of dangers and the obfuscating
of history. It has moved forward on gilded carpets in the corridors of
dialogue, the network of the Alliances and partnerships, in the
corruption of its leaders, intellectuals and NGOs, particularly at the
United Nations."
During the 12th Islamic Summit held in Cairo on February 6-7, 2013, OIC members unanimously elected
Iyad bin Amin Madani to the post of OIC Secretary General. Madani's term will begin in January 2014 when Ihsanoglu's term expires.
This will be the first time that the OIC -- which describes itself as
the "only and sole official representative of the Muslim world... the
real spokesman of the Muslim world" -- will be headed by a Saudi, and
observers believe that under Madani the OIC will become even more
extreme.
Meanwhile, Ihsanoglu continues to admonish the EU that "Islam should
be welcomed as a family member in Europe, not as a guest." He said the
"exclusion of Islam means ignoring the influential role of Islamic
civilization in the evolution of the Western civilization."
Soeren Kern is a Senior Fellow at the New York-based Gatestone Institute.
He is also Senior Fellow for European Politics at the Madrid-based
Grupo de Estudios Estratégicos / Strategic Studies Group. Follow him on Facebook.
