Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Bringing the Brussels Process to SPLC and MPAC

In an example of the Brussels Process at work, a group of American religious leaders has confronted the Southern Poverty Law Center over its participation in an event sponsored by MPAC, the Muslim Public Affairs Committee.

Below is the report from the International Civil Liberties Alliance.


The Brussels Process (large)

American Religious and Civil Rights Leaders Embrace the Principles of the Brussels Process

On 14 August 2012 American religious and civil rights leaders wrote to the Southern Poverty Law Center asking it to withdraw from an event sponsored by the Muslim Public Affairs Committee (MPAC).

This initiative is a timely example of how the ideas driving the Brussels Process are both widespread and growing. Religious and civil rights leaders, as in the case of those protesting any participation in the MPAC event, are taking on the duty to provide guidance to their governments and civil society not to comply with Shariah mandates. The Brussels Process was launched with the signing of the Brussels Declaration 2012 To Safeguard Individual Liberties and Human Rights at a conference in the European Parliament in Brussels on 9 July, 2012. One of the intentions of the Process is to ask people not to participate in human rights initiatives that may undermine civil liberties such as freedom of expression due to the any endorsement of sharia principles. The relevant part of the Brussels Declaration reads as follows:

“To decline any invitation to participate in any local, national or international forum to discuss civil liberties, free speech or human rights, if the organizers — individual persons or organizations — are known proponents of the Cairo Declaration or societal sharia enforcement unless the negotiated or discussed topic is a transition of their codification and implementation of human rights to the UNDHR definitions and away from the Cairo Declaration definitions.”

The text of the letter to the Southern Poverty Law Center includes the following:
“We note with great concern the Southern Poverty Law Center’s participation in the widely publicized teleconference sponsored by the Muslim Public Affairs Council on Wednesday, August 15 at 5:30 p.m. PST/ 8:30 p.m. EST, with Wajahat Ali, Ms. Beirich, and Salam Al-Marayati, President of the sponsoring Muslim Public Affairs Council.

We urge you in the strongest possible terms not to partner with Mr. al-Marayati or with the Muslim Public Affairs Council. To treat MPAC as a legitimate organization, much less a valued partner of the Southern Poverty Law Center, is an extraordinary rejection of Jewish Americans and of moderate Muslim Americans. We present at this link (www.scribd.com/doc/102897106) excerpts from extensively documented findings about the statements and actions of Mr. al-Marayati and the Muslim Public Affairs Council that surely require you, if you have any decency, to cancel your participation in the August 15 MPAC teleconference.

Given the neo-Nazi connections, aggressive Jew hatred and the repudiation of moderate Muslims demonstrated in the views of MPAC, we would urge your Board of Directors, staff, supporters and donors to ask:

  • Does the Southern Poverty Law Center endorse these MPAC policy positions?
  • If not, why are you partnering with MPAC on August 15, 2012?
  • If the Southern Poverty Law Center actually agrees with these MPAC positions, should your donors continue to support your activities with donations totaling over $36 million per year?

We hope that you agreed to this teleconference through ignorance of the Muslim Public Affairs Council positions documented at www.scribd.com/doc/102897106, and now that you are aware of their extremism, you will cancel your participation. We look forward to an informed and civil dialogue with you if you have any questions.

Sincerely,

Rabbi Jonathan Hausman
Esther Levens, President and CEO of the Unity Coalition for Israel — unitycoalitionforisrael.org
Faith J. H. McDonnell, Director, Religious Liberty Program, The Institute on Religion and Democracy — theird.org
Dr. Ashraf Ramelah, Founder and President of Voice of the Copts — voiceofthecopts.org
Rev. Keith Roderick, D.D. Secretary General of the Coalition for the Defense of Human Rights — coalition-me.org
Juliana Taimoorazy, Founder and President of the Iraqi Christian Relief Council — iraqichristianrelief.org

The International Civil Liberties Alliance continues to promote the principles of the Brussels Process and hopes that other organisations will also embrace its principles and do what they can to oppose the erosion of civil liberties that is increasingly evident in our contemporary world. We would like to work with other individuals and organisations that share our values and who are willing to engage in the Brussels Process, even if they do not endorse every single aspect of the Brussels Declaration.


Previous posts about the Brussels Process:

2012 Jul 11 Beginning the Brussels Process
    11 The Brussels Declaration
    11 What is Sharia?
    11 The Brussels Conference
    11 Conference Agenda
    11 Conference Speaker Bios
    11 Brussels 2012 Defender of Freedom Award
    11 Proceedings — Brussels 2012
    11 Interview with Tommy Robinson at the European Parliament
    11 Press Release: Brussels Process Launched
    12 Pointing the Way for Freedom of Speech and the Press
    12 Brussels 2012: Prof. Hans Jansen’s Speech
    12 Tommy Robinson Speaks at the European Parliament
    12 The Death Throes of Free Speech in Europe
    13 “You Can’t Hide the Truth”
    14 Brussels 2012: Magdi Allam’s Speech
    14 The Crossroads of History
    15 “Toto, I Have a Feeling We’re Not in Sweden Anymore”
    15 Brussels 2012: Nidra Poller’s Speech
    16 The Islam Critics’ Conference in Brussels
    16 Brussels 2012: Gavin Boby’s Speech
    17 Tommy Robinson in Brussels
    17 Brussels 2012: Pierre Cassen’s Speech
    19 Brussels 2012: Alexandre del Valle’s Speech
    19 Brussels 2012: Pierre Cassen’s Speech, Subtitled in English
    20 The Reading of the Brussels Declaration
    21 Brussels 2012: Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff’s Speech
    21 Déclaration de Bruxelles 9 juillet 2012
    21 Brussels 2012: Lars Hedegaard’s Speech
    25 Brussels 2012: Ingrid Carlqvist’s Speech
    26 Brussels 2012: The Panel Discussion
    29 Introducing Europe to the Jurisdiction of the Shariah State
    30 Fjordman: Inside the Brussels Conference on Free Speech and Human Rights
  Aug 6 Brussels 2012: Conny Axel Meier’s Speech
    8 The Danger of the Istanbul Process
    14 Brussels 2012: Christian Jung’s Speech

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great work.

However the SPLC is a disreputable institutions itself.

EV

Anonymous said...

The SPLC does not care what Muzzies or Left wing hate groups do. They specifically target groups who promote Western Civilization, who support strong border security, and anyone who goes after Obama.

In short they're Morlocks.

babs said...

This is absolutely true:
About a year ago I received in the mail a certificate from the SPLC stating that I was "tolerant." In addition, the letter that came with it said that my name was being posted on some wall somewhere along with thousands of other names...
How those jokers got my name is beyond me but, I put the certificate up on my frig and we all laughed about it for several months!
SPLC has to be one of the top ten orgs that I completely disagree with. LOL!