The UNHRC: A History of Hypocrisy

The UN Human Rights Council (HRC) has once again proven itself to be a complete sham. During last week’s General Assembly elections, the UN selected 15 countries to serve three-year terms within the HRC. Of those 15 new member States, five—Pakistan, Bahrain, Burkina Faso, Gabon and Zambia—have come under fire for human rights violations.

These five countries are not the only questionable members with seats on the Human Rights Council, however. More than one third of the HRC member States (16 of 47) are members of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), which has a spotty record on human rights issues. Five of the 16 OIC members with seats in the HRC (Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Egypt and Indonesia) were listed in the ICC 2008 Hall of Shame report as being among the world’s worst persecutors of Christians. Crimes against Christians have included forced conversion to Islam, detainment, arrests, imprisonment, rape and murder.

The OIC members of the Human Rights Council have a disturbing history of protecting the rights and beliefs of Muslims, while pointedly ignoring the plight of Christians who are victims of Islamic jihad. In March, for example, the OIC members drafted and passed a UN-sanctioned resolution that calls for the reporting of all instances of defamation of religions, and “in particular [emphasis added-where is the emphasis? I don’t see it] on the serious implications of Islamaphobia.” In reality, this resolution is a cleverly-disguised attempt by Muslim countries to extend repressive blasphemy laws to the entire world. In response to such events as the Danish cartoon “crisis,” Muslim countries want the rest of the world to abide by the same laws against insulting Muhammad or the Quran that are currently in force in places like Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. When it comes to defaming other religions, however, such as Christianity or Buddhism, Muslim countries show no signs of tolerance.

Here are just a few recent examples that prove the hypocrisy of the resolution—and the council that enforced it:

1) In the resolution, the HRC states that it “deplores the use of the print, audio-visual and electronic media, including the internet, and any other means to incite acts of violence, xenophobia or related intolerance and discrimination towards Islam or any religion.” Saudi Arabia (a member of OIC and the HRC) apparently has no qualms about using the media to incite intolerance and discrimination, however.

On March 30, leading Saudi cleric Muhammad Al-Munajid conducted an interview on Al-Majd TV, in which he called Westerners and journalists “lowlifes” and “fools and heretics” and spoke of the danger of people turning to Christianity and Buddhism if given too much freedom. He said that freedom “is very dangerous.”

2) The HRC resolution claims to “strongly deplore physical attacks and assaults on businesses, cultural centers and places of worship of all religions as well as targeting of religious symbols,” but a number of HRC member States are guilty of such attacks.

The Indonesian Human Rights Commission recently stated that violence against churches is “common in the provinces of West Java, Banten, Central Java, South Sulawesi and Bengkulu.” Furthermore, in Pakistan, mob attacks on churches have become routine. A church graveyard was destroyed just last week, and in March, a mob attacked a church and injured the pastor and a number of parishioners. During the attack, the Muslim attackers reportedly insulted Jesus Christ. Four days earlier, an unknown assailant had slashed the throat of a nun. The government itself might not be responsible for the attacks, but they are certainly failing taking action to prevent them.

These are just a few of the numerous examples of violence and discrimination that Christians face in the very countries that have been elected to the UN Human Rights Council. And until the UN stops electing countries that ignore the human rights violations in their own backyards, the UN Human Rights Council will continue to be a complete fraud.

Can You Hear Them?

Can you hear them?  If you close your eyes and listen, you may be able to.  They are whispering, “What does it feel like to attend church freely?  Where is a safe place to hide my Bible?  What do I say if someone asks if I am a Christian?”  These questions seem strange to the average American, because we live in a country that practices freedom of religion.  We live in a country where we can lift our hands and voices to God without fear of retribution or death.  Yet, we are the minority.  For Christians living in India, Indonesia, Iraq, Iran, Sudan, Vietnam, Egypt, and China these are real questions that they must ask themselves every day.  These are Christians whose faith is so strong that they awake each morning knowing that torture, imprisonment, or death—is imminent.  Yet, they do not fold.  They do not back down.  They proclaim their faith with boldness, because they know how temporal this life is.  These are Christians who in the throes of death–pray for their persecutors.  As angry fundamentalists with bloodshot eyes hover over them—knives pressed to their throats—our brothers and sisters in Christ do not flinch.  Instead they whisper, “Father forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing,” (Luke 23:34).  Do you hear them yet? 

           
Every day, 200 million Christians wake up in a country where they cannot freely practice their faith in Christ.  As we rush around complaining about rising gas prices, an Indonesian Christian village is being burned by fanatic Muslims.  While we shake our heads in frustration at the cost of food, a six-year-old Christian girl is having her stomach slit open and an elderly man of faith is being burned to death.  As we anxiously anticipate summer vacations Vietnamese officials are confiscating the home of an evangelist; an Egyptian woman is being detained for converting to Christianity; a house church is being raided in Beijing; and Bangladeshi Muslims, in an effort to rid the area of a Christian pastor, gang rape his 13-year-old daughter. These are our Christian brothers and sisters who are crying out for help. Can you hear them?  Are their prayers reverberating in your ears?

As Americans we have been blessed with freedom—we have it in the palm of our hands.  With this freedom we have the power to help our persecuted brothers and sisters in Christ.  As they kneel in secret and silent prayer, the entire Body of Christ shakes.  Tears flow as we take on the pain that reverberates down the Vine.  Our bodies ache as another mother dies, as a cross is torn from a neck, as a Bible is slashed to pieces, and as a church goes up in flames.  Yet, amidst this chaos our persecuted brothers and sisters in Christ close their eyes and pray, “Answer me when I call to you, O my righteous God.  Give me relief from my distress; be merciful to me and hear my prayer,” (Psalm 4:1).  Can you hear them now?

Religious Persecution Unjustly Weighed

The Iraqi Islamic Party, the Sunni-led group that includes Iraqi Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi, yesterday called for the U.S. to administer “the severest of punishments” to an American staff sergeant who used the Quran for target practice. The party said it reacted “with deep resentment and indignation” at news of the soldier’s actions, which the party called a “blatant assault on the sanctities of Muslims all over the world.”

While ICC condemns the use of any holy book in such a manner, we are sickened at the failure of the Iraqi Islamic Party–and other Iraqi Islamic groups–to react with equal amounts of “resentment and indignation” at reports of Christian persecution. We can only assume from their actions–or lack thereof–that they place more importance on insults to their religion and assaults on their sanctities than they place on the physical assaults and horrors Iraqi Christians face daily. This shows nothing less than a callous disregard for human life.

Since the start of the war, hundreds of thousands of Christians have fled the country. Though they make up only 3 percent of the population, Christians make up more than half the refuges who flee in fear for their lives. And that fear is legitimate. In the last two months alone, the Christian community suffered the abduction and murder of Paulos Faraj Rahho, archbishop of Mosul ’s Chaldean community, and the murder of Youssef Adel, an Assyrian Orthodox priest.

These two incidents were high-profile enough to make news headlines, but hundreds–if not thousands–of Christians face the same danger each and every day of their lives. They face kidnapping, harassment and violent attacks–including the destruction of churches–at the hands of Islamic groups that want to rid the country of non-Muslims. One report described the situation in Iraq as a “campaign of genocide [being] carried out under the noses of Iraq and U.S. forces.”

It is time for the Iraqi community and the Iraqi government to stand up and speak out against the horrors that Iraqi Muslim extremists are committing in the name of Allah. It is time for the government to start placing more importance on life–and more importance on protecting Iraqi Christians and religious minorities–and less importance on punishing people who insult their religion. Until that happens, it will be very difficult for non-Muslims to accept that the Iraqi government promotes a religion of peace and tolerance. Instead, non-Muslims will–rightly or wrongly–view Islam as a religion that protects its own while ignoring the plight of others.