Defaming Islam: Malaysia Lectures America About Freedom

Via Peter

 

 A study in hypocrisy.

The United Nations again lived down to its reputation. The recent ministerial meeting in the General Assembly provided a moment of unintended hilarity. Commenting on the controversy surrounding the recent film critical of the Prophet Mohammed, Malaysian Foreign Minister Anifah Aman asked, "Why is it when Muslims are stigmatized and defamed, it is defended as freedom of expression?"
He apparently imagines a world in which Muslims demonstrate striking forbearance in the face of shocking intolerance. He imagines a world in which Muslim states do not routinely persecute Christians, Jews, Baha'is, and other religious minorities. He imagines a world in which non-Muslims do not face arrest, prison, and death for "blasphemy" toward Islam and Muslims do not face arrest, prison, and death for converting away from Islam.

Minister Aman imagines a world in which Christian girls are not kidnapped and forced into marriage in Muslim nations. He imagines a world in which Muslim mobs do not murder Christians, destroy churches, wreck Bible schools, and wipe out entire Christian villages. He imagines a world in which Muslims treat religious minorities as they demand to be treated in societies in which they are a minority.

It is a wonderful world. But it is not the world in which we live today. To the contrary, most majority Muslim states discriminate and many persecute non-Muslims as well as minority Muslims. There's no need for individuals to defame Christians, Jews, and others when the state imprisons and kills them.
Minister Aman's wonderful vision does not even describe his own country of Malaysia. There are worse countries, to be sure. But Malaysia now is lecturing the rest of the world about religious defamation and freedom of expression.

How does Minister Aman's government treat Christians and others who believe differently than the majority? Consider what the most recent State Department report on religious liberty said of Malaysia: "… the constitution as well as other laws and policies placed some restrictions on religious freedom." Muslims are barred from converting to other faiths, "although members of other religions may convert to Islam."

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