Just look who’s talking, critics tell United Nations
James Reinl
October 15, 2008
The National
Original Source: http://www.thenational.ae/article/20081015/FOREIGN/631044572/1002
NEW YORK // Saudi Arabia’s attempts to stage an inter-faith debate at UN headquarters have met with resistance, with analysts criticising the kingdom for denying citizens and residents basic religious freedoms.

Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann, president of the UN General Assembly, is finalising plans this week for a two-day, high-level meeting on religion to take place in New York next month in co-ordination with Saudi officials.
Critics argue that the lack of religious freedoms in the kingdom mean Saudi officials have no right to stage such a conference, and criticise the United Nations for betraying its principles by supporting the project.

“The spectacle of Saudi Arabia pontificating about religious rights borders on the farcical,” said Anne Bayefsky, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, a Washington-based policy research body.
“Let’s not forget the way they deal with religious minorities or the fact that Christian symbols cannot be publicly displayed.”

Ali al Ahmed, director of the Washington-based Institute for Gulf Affairs, said the government denies religious freedoms to non-Muslims.

The scholar said Saudi officials embarked on a “public relations campaign” following the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington, trying to “clean up” its image.
In its 2008 report on religious freedom around the world, the US state department identified Saudi Arabia as one of eight “countries of particular concern” for having “engaged in or tolerated particularly severe violations of religious freedom”.

The Saudi delegation to the UN refused to respond to criticism, but a recent letter sent by Prince Saud Al Faisal, the foreign minister, to Mr d’Escoto said the event would “encourage dialogue, understanding and co-operation between religions and cultures, thereby promoting peace and harmony”.
The event will follow on from the World Conference on Dialogue organised by King Abdullah in July, which saw Jews, Muslims and Christians meet in Madrid to seek common ground between faiths.

Defenders of King Abdullah have pointed out that by hosting non-Muslim scholars in the Spanish capital, and senior Shiites in Mecca the previous month, the monarch was being progressive by Saudi Arabia’s conservative standards.
The king has also been advancing a political agenda, with Saudi helping broker a short-lived power-sharing arrangement between the rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah last year, and another deal between Somalia’s transitional government and Islamist insurgents.

While detractors scrutinise Saudi’s credentials for such diplomatic efforts, others argue the kingdom is presenting a moderate and acceptable counterbalance to the region’s other major power, Iran.
But by co-hosting an interfaith conference under the aegis of the United Nations, human rights advocates said that Mr d’Escoto is undermining the very principles he is supposed to be upholding.

One of the most fundamental UN documents, the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, spells out an individual’s “freedom to change his religion” and right “to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance”.
The critics argue that Mr d’Escoto, together with Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary general, who has supported King Abdullah’s efforts, are betraying fundamental principles of their organisation.

“The UN’s move gives credibility to the violators of human rights and allows them to hide or conceal their true intentions,” Ms Bayefsky said.

“It does a disservice to the UN’s mission as a whole.”

Mr d’Escoto, a Nicaraguan priest, has already become a controversial character at UN headquarters for making anti-US remarks and embracing Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran’s president, at the General Assembly podium last month.
Enrique Yeves, the assembly president’s spokesman, answered the criticism of the Saudi religious project by saying the debates, to be held on Nov 12 and 13, would represent an important “dialogue of religions”.

“He believes that we should go beyond the dialogue itself,” Mr Yeves said. “Now, the different religions should join forces and work together to try to resolve the most important issues that humanity is facing.”