Islam is greatest contributor to refugee law: UNHCR
The Islamic tradition of generosity toward people fleeing persecution has had more influence on modern international refugee law than any other historical source, according to a study published Tuesday by the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.
“The international community should value this 14-century-old tradition of generosity and hospitality and recognize its contributions to modern law,” U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres writes in his forward to “The Right to Asylum Between Islamic Shari’ah and International Refugee Law: A Comparative Study.”
The report was commissioned by UNHCR in cooperation with Saudi Arabia’s Naif Arab University for Security Sciences and the Organisation of the Islamic Conference. It was written by Ahmed Abu Al-Wafa, a professor and dean of the law faculty at Cairo University.
“Today, the majority of refugees worldwide are Muslims,” Guterres writes. “This fact occurs at a time when the level of extremism -- ethnic and religious -- is on the rise around the globe, even in the world’s most developed societies. Racism, xenophobia and populist fear-mongering manipulate public opinion and confuse refugees with illegal migrants and even terrorists.
“These attitudes have also contributed to misperceptions about Islam, and Muslim refugees have paid a heavy price. Let us be clear: refugees are not terrorists. They are first and foremost the victims of terrorism. This book reminds us of our duty to counter such attitudes.”
The Organization of the Islamic Conference stipulated every human being fleeing persecution has the right to seek asylum and receive protection in another country in its 1990 Declaration on Human Rights in Islam.
OIC Secretary-General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, in a separate forward, writes that the book “demonstrates the equitable and tolerant rules Islamic Shari’ah applies to refugees and how it is keenly concerned with their welfare and interests, while confirming human integrity and man’s right to a free, decent life.”
That theme “gains importance in the light of the increase in recent years in the numbers of refugees in Arab and Islamic countries,” Abdul-Aziz bin Saqr al-Ghamedi, president of Naif Arab University, said in a statement.
Ahmad At-Tayyib, president of al-Azhar University in Cairo, said the Arab concept of asylum, or “ijarah,” pre-dated Islam but was enshrined in Shari’ah “because it was one of the established good practices in their traditions and customs, involving noble manners and ethical values such as rescue of people in distress and protection of the oppressed.”
Comments
Muslims are the ones doing the persecuting.Also Muslims come into the West and look to dominate it. This can bee seen across Europe.Here is information on the intolerant al-Azharhttp://islaminaction08.blogspot.com/2009/06/egyptian-con-and-obamavideos.html
Posted by: Christopher | June 24, 2009 10:00 AM
Christopher, get over your xenophobia. As a child of Muslim refugees, I find your comment incredibly ignorant, racist, and erroneous.
Assuming your utterly moronic theory was correct, how would it even be possible to "dominate" a country when our population is so low?
All you are trying to do is to promote hatred and fear. How will this help anyone?
If you truly stood against terrorism, you would promote dialogue rather than fear-mongering.
Posted by: Uzayr | June 25, 2009 5:01 PM
Uzayr,
It is entirely possible for minorities to dominate countries--The Tutsis dominated Rwanda before the Hutus slaughtered them, the Sunnis dominated the Shias in Iraq, the British were few in number and dominated millions in India and the Tamils of Sri Lanka turned that country upside down and inside out for 27 years even when they were not in the majority.
Christopher did not say Muslims dominate the West--he merely said they come into the West and LOOK to dominate it. How do they do this? They ask for Shari'ah laws for themselves. Some go to Pakistan and train there so they can blow up trains and subways--create mass mayhem as they did in Scotland near the airport in Glasgow (Muslim docs no less) as they did in the 7/7 disaster in England, as they did in Spain, incinerating innocents in subway cars --when asked about these outrages Muslims always sing the same old songs-- about the terrorists being in the minority, about most Muslims being peace loving and law abiding moderates, about how an entire basket of fruits should not be judged by a few rotten apples, about how stereotyping is a moronic misadventure, about how the Europeans have done terrible things too-- in the Holocaust, in the World Wars, during colonial times--- blah blah blah.
But do Muslims look to dominate even though they are in the minority in the West? Sure some of them do--through terror--no better way to dominate, through asking for their own separate laws--that's a great way to undermine the laws of the countries where they live and dominate by agitating the majority.
They also dominate by crying foul every chance they get. They don't argue anything intellectually, instead they fling accusations around--from xenophobia to racism--what better way to silence the opposition than to accuse it of the worst possible motives--such accusations endow the accuser with the power of self righteousness and the domination of victimhood--nothing is more potent than the last and Muslims are past masters at this art.
So is it possible for the minority to beat up the majority? Answer--entirely possible and indeed there are a myriad ways for minorities to accomplish this feat with guilt the main sling shot fired at the collective head of the cowering majority.
At this point, except for stupid Sarkozy who wants the burka out, most western leaders are slobbering at Muslim feet for acceptance--Muslims are prima donnas par excellence and prima donnas have all the power when it comes to domination.
As for this study-- about Muslim generosity to refugees as codified in the Shari'ah-- becoming a major contributor to international law on the same subject--it is hooey baloney.
The Muslims may have codified kindness toward refugees in Shari'ah but they don't practice it. It is easy to claim the noble inheritance of ancient laws and then go abduct little boys from India and Bangladesh to become camel jockeys-- as the Sheikhs do in Saudi Arabia--for their own amusement--indulge in the cruel sport of camel racing.
Look at the plight of the Palestinian refugees in various Muslim countries--in Egypt they cannot get a public education or employment, in Jordan no employment, ditto in Lebanon--third class non citizens and nonentities everywhere they go within Islamic lands--in Iraq unwanted and vilified --this Antonio Gutteres is he for real? Muslim countries have abused Palestinian refugees just to keep the Arab Israeli problem alive. God forbid they should treat the Palestinians as one of their own, as the Shari'ah dictates-then may be the Palestinians will assimilate and what next? O my God! No Arab Israeli conflict to stir up the entire world, to cry crocodile rivers for their Palestinian brothers? What an apocalypse!
The Islamic Shari'ah law gets the adulteress stoned to death and limbs cut off that dare steal but it is generous to a fault to refugees? Wow! This law certainly has multiple personalities.
Most Muslims are refugees within Islamic lands. Gutteres says racism xenophobia and populist fear mongering get refugees mistaken for migrant workers and terrorists. Where? The West does not have as many Muslim refugees as the Middle East.
Granted, America caused a terrible problem in the Middle East with its invasions and wars and should take in more displaced Muslims, in actual fact most displaced Muslims live in abysmal conditions in oil fattened Muslim lands.
Talk about terrible treatment; look no further than Dubai, the jaded Queen of the Persian Gulf, where Bangladeshi, Indian, Filipino and African Muslims slave night and day for their obscenely wealthy Arab masters--their passports impounded as soon as they arrive, their dwellings hothouses of dehydration and death, their jobs unending massive building projects-- or go to Saudi Arabia, where economic refugees from elsewhere cannot worship as they please, cannot build churches or temples, cannot go to Mecca or set eyes on the Kabah-- not for curiosity nor for education-- and they dare not open their mouths for fear they will be beheaded or stoned and this is the generosity of the Shari'ah for refugees?
After the Americans attacked, the Iraqis fled to Jordan and the Afghans fled to Pakistan--the fugitive Iraqis were not embraced enthusiastically by their Muslim brothers in Jordan and the Pakistanis simply stashed the fugitive Afghans in the worst possible camps and put out the begging bowl to the world and the US.
Not only are refugees treated appallingly in Muslim countries, so are minorities--the plight and misery of the Hindus and the Christians of Pakistan and Bangladesh, the dismal state of the Marsh Arabs of Iraq, the condition of the Coptic Christians in Egypt and the absence of Jews in Arab lands are testaments to Muslim intolerance and impatience with all things different from their own scriptures and teachings.
I am not surprised at the above report from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees--Muslims do the study and pat themselves on their backs--self congratulatory to say the least--Ahmed Abu Al-Wafa, General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, Abdul Aziz bin-Saqr al Ghamedi and Ahmad At- Tayyib sing in a chorus-a mutual admiration society funded by the Naif Arab University of Saudi Arabia --a country with a vested interest in polishing up the image of Shari'ah--they must believe, all of them together, that the non Muslim world consists of naifs and idiots.
Posted by: Anonymous | June 28, 2009 12:33 AM