A liberal Arab writer takes an exceedingly jaundiced look at the recent International Islamic Conference in Cairo and its empty promises to promote democracy and human rights, courtesy of MEMRI’s indispensable translations: Genuine Call for Tolerance or Reiteration of Hollow Slogans?

’The Conference’s Resolutions and Recommendations [are] Clich�s that Recur Year After Year’

“If we look at the conference’s resolutions and recommendations, we find nothing but clichés that recur year after year, to the point where they can almost be predicted even before the conference convenes. This year, the conference emphasized its rejection of all forms of violence and extremism, and condemned all terror operations taking place in the world, particularly in Saudi Arabia.

”The conference clarified that the security chaos in Iraq would end only with the end of the [U.S.] occupation, when the Iraqis are able to put together a government in accordance with their wishes. [The conference also] called on the Sudanese to stand together against all the conspiracies being hatched against them and their unity.

“As for democracy in Muslim countries and the rights of the Muslim woman, the conference approved investing additional efforts in deepening a democratic perception and in removing obstacles preventing its establishment, and called on the Muslim countries to uphold the women’s rights that are set out in Islam.”

’The Conference did not Address the Violence Recommended by the Writings of Our Muslim Forefathers’

“I will attempt to examine these resolutions in order to see whether Mr. Miessen [A Belgian observer who had harsh criticisms of the conference… —ed.] was correct in accusing the Muslims of declaiming hollow slogans lacking in actual content. In looking at the first resolution regarding the condemnation of violence, we find that the conference did not address the violence recommended by the writings of our Muslim forefathers, which we consider an important part of Islam: violence and blows for 10-year-olds who are not punctilious about praying, beating women suspected of misconduct, or correcting a deviant act we encounter [on our own] instead of calling in the police to do so, and beating people with a rod on Fridays to urge them to hasten to the mosque. Perhaps some think that such blows are not violence, but education for children, women, and others. However, according to the concepts of modern education, it is the worse kind of violence, because it implants in children the thought that blows are the quickest way to get what you want.”

The Conference Didn’t Criticize Violence Against Non-Muslims

“The conference also condemned all kinds of terror, particularly the bombings in Saudi Arabia. But we heard no such condemnation when Muslim terrorists bombed the Bali nightclub, in which hundreds of young Westerners who had nothing to do with politics and what is happening in Palestine were killed. We heard no such condemnation when Islamists bombed a Jewish synagogue and the British Consulate in Turkey. And we also hear no condemnation of any kind when a Palestinian blows himself up in an Israeli nightclub or bus, killing himself along with dozens of innocent civilians.

”We are not saying that the Palestinians have no right to struggle against the occupation. But the struggle must be against the occupying forces, not civilians. [Furthermore], we heard no condemnation by Muslims of the terrorism being committed by the Al-Janjawidgangs, that are supported by the Sudanese government [to act against] the non-Muslim natives of Western Sudan.”