Arab West Report Egyptian press summaries and media research for dialogue

The United Nations General Assembly is currently discussing a suggestion, calling upon its members to take a firm stance against religions perversion. Thirteen out of twenty countries support one’s right to publically criticize other religions as a part of his freedom of expression. On the other hand, a recent poll showed that 34 percent of respondents support giving the government the right to impose fines and physical punishments on those who criticize and distort various religions. The Organization of the Islamic Conference [http://www.oic-oci.org/] —composed of 56 Islamic countries — called for countries all over the world to actively oppose these violations of religion. On the whole, the debate stems from friction among ideas such as that between freedom of expression and freedom of belief; the debate is especially heated given of the number of incidents in recent decades violating symbols and principles held sacred by various religions. The insulting caricatures published by the Danish journals (and supported by Holland) and the brutal crime against Egyptian Muslim woman Marwah al-Shirbīnī in Germany are still fresh in peoples’ minds.

 

Finally, the poll discovered that 89 percent of respondents in the United States supported the right to publically criticize religion, totally rejecting governmental involvement. On the other hand, 71 percent of Egyptian respondents opposed this right such and voted on the necessity of giving the government penal power in such situations.