Strange Bedfellows
Conservatives Collaborate With
Pro-Terrorist Islamic Group
At a time when the “clash of civilizations” between Islam and the Judeo-Christian West has exploded, a “World Congress of Families” scheduled for Washington, D.C. will feature conservative pro-family advocates rubbing elbows with a leading official of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) to the United Nations, a group of mostly terrorist regimes and Islamic dictatorships.
Presented by the Family Action Council International, the World Congress of Families is sponsored by the Beverly LaHaye Institute, BYU Management Society Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute, Concerned Women for America, Family Research Council, Heritage Foundation, The Howard Center for Family, Religion, & Society, Southern Virginia University, Toward Tradition, and the World Family Policy Center.
The OIC speaker at the October 26-27 World Congress of Families event is the “Honorable Mokhtar Lamani,” Permanent Observer of the Organization of the Islamic Conference to the United Nations. One conference organizer describes him as a “good guy” who believes in family values and that conservative American pro-family groups often have to work with regimes such as Libya and Iran to beat back the pro-abortion, pro-homosexual, radical feminist forces at the U.N. Lamani is nevertheless a representative of an international group that serves as an umbrella for some of the worst regimes on the planet. The OIC includes Iran, Iraq, Sudan, and Syria, among others.
The OIC, in its statement on the September 11 terror attacks on America, demanded that the U.S. not carry the war on terrorism forward against Saddam Hussein.
Another figure involved in the “World Congress of Families” has been Fatemah Hashemi Rafsanani, the Secretary General of the Women's Solidarity Association of Iran who is the daughter of Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the former Iranian President and top terrorist leader. She served on the “planning committee” for the second World Congress of Families.
Cliff Kincaid, president of America’s Survival, asks, “Is it really possible, especially after September 11, to work with such regimes on the issues of abortion and homosexuality and ignore their records of terrorism and violations of human rights in general? Why wasn’t it possible to find truly moderate American Muslim leaders?”
Kincaid urged conservative groups to withdrawal from the event because of the ties to radical Islam.
A special report on this matter follows:
Strange Bedfellows
Conservatives Collaborate With Pro-Terrorist Islamic Group Committed to “Liberation” of Palestine
At a time when the “clash of civilizations” between Islam and the Judeo-Christian West has exploded, a “World Congress of Families” scheduled for Washington, D.C. will feature conservative pro-family advocates rubbing elbows with a leading official of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) to the United Nations, a group of mostly terrorist regimes and Islamic dictatorships.
The purpose in bringing them together is to foster cooperation on behalf of the family. However, these are not ordinary Muslims dedicated to peace but people linked to terrorist regimes. The event will be held in the Daughters of the American Revolution Constitution Hall and the U.S. House of Representatives.
Presented by the Family Action Council International, the World Congress of Families is sponsored by the Beverly LaHaye Institute, BYU Management Society Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute, Concerned Women for America, Family Research Council, Heritage Foundation, The Howard Center for Family, Religion, & Society, Southern Virginia University, Toward Tradition, and the World Family Policy Center.
Many of these groups, of course, may not be aware of the true nature of the OIC. But if the purpose is simply to join together for the benefit of the family, then it could also be argued that Louis Farrakhan should be brought to the event because he, too, spouts "pro-family" rhetoric.
The OIC attacks “criminal” Zionists and defends Libya against charges that the Gadhafi regime sponsored terrorism against the U.S. An OIC official at the recent U.N. conference on racism denounced the “racist policy” of Israel, complained that Jews have adopted a policy of “so-called racial superiority,” and accused the Israeli government of “war crimes.” Such a speech contributed to the atmosphere that led to the walk-out of the U.S. delegation to the conference.
The OIC called President Reagan’s 1986 military strike against Libya “military aggression,” even though it was retaliation for the Libyan role in the bombing of a Berlin disco where American military personnel were killed and wounded. The OIC also urged “reparations” for Libya as a result.
In an editorial, The Arab Paradox , on Thursday, October 11, 2001; page A32, the Washington Post noted that the OIC, in its statement on the September 11 terror attacks on America, demanded that the U.S. not carry the war on terrorism forward against Saddam Hussein :
[Egyptian President Hosni] Mubarak's longtime foreign minister, Amr Moussa, now the secretary general of the Arab League, prompted first Arab states and then the 56-nation Islamic Conference to adopt a resolution yesterday opposing U.S. attacks on any Arab country as part of the anti-terrorism campaign -- a position that offers cover to Iraq's Saddam Hussein (emphasis added).
A story about the OIC terrorism meeting by Daniel Williams of the Washington Post Foreign Service on Thursday, October 11, 2001; page A21, noted that
…the group called for future battles against terrorism to be waged under the flag of the United Nations and to be narrowly defined so as to exclude Palestinian and Lebanese groups -- such as the Islamic Resistance Movement, known as Hamas, and Hezbollah -- that are fighting Israel.
Indeed, in a policy statement, the OIC distinguishes between terrorism and “National Liberation.” The OIC has called for
an international Conference under the aegis of the United Nations to define the concept of terrorism and to make a distinction between terrorism and peoples’ struggle for national liberation.
This, of course, is designed to allow terrorism for the purpose of “liberating” Palestine from Israel.
Article II of the Charter of the OIC, which includes “objectives and principles,” says the objectives of the Islamic Conference shall include
to coordinate efforts for the safeguarding of the Holy Places and support of the struggle of the people of Palestine, to help them regain their rights and liberate their land (emphasis added)
This is code for the destruction of Israel.
The OIC speaker at the October 26-27 World Congress of Families event is the “Honorable Mokhtar Lamani,” Permanent Observer of the Organization of the Islamic Conference to the United Nations. Lamani, the chairman of a session at the second World Conference of Families in 1999, is described in conference literature as being from Saudi Arabia or Morrocco. One conference organizer describes him as a “good guy” who believes in family values and that conservative American pro-family groups often have to work with regimes such as Libya and Iran to beat back the pro-abortion, pro-homosexual, radical feminist forces at the U.N. Lamani is nevertheless a representative of an international group that serves as an umbrella for some of the worst regimes on the planet. The OIC includes Iran, Iraq, Sudan, and Syria, among others.
Is it really possible, especially after September 11, to work with such regimes on the issues of abortion and homosexuality and ignore their records of terrorism and violations of human rights in general?
Why wasn’t it possible to find truly moderate American Muslim leaders?
Lamani enjoys a “moderate” reputation. But the organization’s statements and resolutions speak for themselves.
Fatemah Hashemi Rafsanjani, the daughter of a top Iranian terrorist leader, was a speaker and top official of the second World Conference of Families.
In a policy statement, the OIC has
called on the United States of America to lift the economic sanctions imposed on the Sudan in view of its harmful effects and the losses incurred at economic and social levels.
Such sanctions were imposed because of the Sudan’s government’s sponsorship of terrorism. The government there is also responsible for genocide against Christians.
Another figure involved in the “World Congress of Families” has been Fatemah Hashemi Rafsanani, the Secretary General of the Women's Solidarity Association of Iran who is the daughter of Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the former Iranian President and top terrorist leader. She served on the “planning committee” for the second World Congress of Families.
In a June 4, 1997, policy paper, Patrick Clawson of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy said that when Rafsanjani was elected president, he was described as the "great white-turbaned hope," yet he “sponsored more terrorism than did his predecessors.” In 1989, the Iranian government called on Muslims to kill British author Salman Rushdie for blasphemy. The Iranian regime maintains terror camps and has been implicated in the murder of Americans.
In her speech to the second “World Congress of Families,” Fatemah Hashemi Rafsanjani called for strengthening the traditional family. However, families suffer terribly in Iran.
The State Department’s 2000 Human Rights report says about Iran:
The Government restricts citizens' right to change their government. Systematic abuses include extrajudicial killings and summary executions; disappearances; widespread use of torture and other degrading treatment, reportedly including rape; harsh prison conditions; arbitrary arrest and detention; and prolonged and incommunicado detention.
On the issue of religious freedom, it says
The Government restricts freedom of religion. Religious minorities, particularly Baha'is, continued to suffer repression by conservative elements of the judiciary and security establishment. In July 10 Iranian Jews were tried and convicted on charges of illegal contacts with Israel, and sentenced to between 2 and 13 years in prison. Three others were acquitted. The trial procedures were unfair, and violated numerous internationally recognized standards of due process.
One organization in 1999 reported eight deaths of evangelical Christians at the hands of the authorities in the past 10 years
On the matter of women’s rights, it says
It is difficult for many women to obtain legal redress. A woman's testimony in court is worth only half that of a man's, making it difficult for a woman to prove a case against a male defendant.
Women must ride in a reserved section on public buses and enter public buildings, universities, and airports through separate entrances. Women are prohibited from attending male sporting events, although this restriction does not appear to be enforced universally. While the enforcement of a conservative Islamic dress codes has varied with the political climate since the death of Ayatollah Khomeini in 1989, what women wear in public is not entirely a matter of personal choice. Women are subject to harassment by the authorities if their dress or behavior is considered inappropriate, and may be sentenced to flogging or imprisonment for such violations. The law prohibits the publication of pictures of uncovered women in the print media, including pictures of foreign women. There are penalties for failure to observe Islamic dress codes at work.
Shortly after the 1979 revolution, the Government repealed the Family Protection Law, a hallmark bill that was adopted in 1967, which gave women increased rights in the home and workplace, and replaced it with a legal system based largely on Shari'a practices. In 1998 the Majles passed legislation that mandated segregation of the sexes in the provision of medical care.
The Penal Code includes provisions that mandate the stoning of women and men convicted of adultery.
The speakers at the October 2001 World Congress of Families include:
Hon. Mokhtar Lamani (Invited), Organization of Islamic Conference to the U.N.
Allan C. Carlson, The Howard Center for Family, Religion, and Society
Janice Shaw Crouse, Beverly LaHaye Institute
Hon. Jo Ann Davis, U.S. House of Representatives
Hon. John T. Doolittle, U.S. House of Representatives
Dinesh D’Souza, American Enterprise Institute
Patrick Fagan, Heritage Foundation
Babette Francis, Endeavour Forum
Elder Ralph W. Hardy, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Jeanne E. Heade, National Right to LifeRabbi Daniel Lapin, Toward Tradition
Lt. Col. Robert Maginnis (USA, Ret.), Family Research Council
Michael Medved, National Radio Talk Show Host
Austin Ruse, Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute
William L. Saunders, Family Research Council
Rita Thompson, Fairfax County Virginia School Board
Richard G. Wilkins, World Family Policy Center
The National Council of Resistance of Iran has issued a document, “Women, Islam & Equality,” which reports:
According to the [Iranian] regime's figures, in 1992, ‘113,000 persons were arrested and referred to the judicial authorities on charges of dissemination of moral corruption and mal-veiling.’ The harassment is not limited to arrests. The regime's officials also send motorcycle gangs of club-wielders into the streets to attack women, sometimes slashing their faces with razor blades or throwing acid into their faces. On June 11, 1994, Agence France Presse quoted the Iranian press in a report on security officials' warning to women to avoid ‘improper smiles’ in the streets. They were also instructed to fully observe the dress code before ‘looking out the windows’ of their homes.
Besides the ‘normal’ penalty of 74 lashes, female government employees who violate the dress code are liable to temporary suspension from work for up to two years; expulsion and suspension from the public service, and indefinite deprivation of any employment in the public service.
Tens of thousands have been arrested on political charges and severely tortured and executed. Many have died under torture. One method is particularly revealing: the Pasdaran (Guards Corps) fire a single bullet into the womb of the condemned women political prisoners, leaving them to bleed to death in a slow process of excruciating pain. Even pregnant women have not been spared.
Excerpts of speech by H.E. DR. ABDELOUAHED BELKEZIZ, SECRETARY GENERAL OF THE ORGANIZATION OF THE ISLAMIC CONFERENCE (OIC), TO THE WORLD CONFERENCE AGAINST RACISM, DURBAN, SOUTH AFRICA , AUGUST 31 – SEPTEMBER 7, 2001:
ATTACKS ISRAEL AS RACIST…
“The racist policy of Israeli politicians, based on haughtiness, cynicism, so-called racial superiority, the idea of chosen people and the ensuing nonchalant attitude towards international legitimacy, is a policy of a bygone epoch – an epoch wherein Israel feels that it can give itself the right to use brute and wantonly force against unarmed civilians in their own occupied territories, massacre them, assassinate their politicians, blow up their homes, apply collective sanctions against them, strangle their freedom, starve them, close or seal their sanctuaries and judaize their cities – Practices that do not only fall within the categories of human right breaches and violation of international humanitarian laws and norms, but of which most are considered as part of the war crimes unambiguously singled out in international covenants. All that has to be met by your conference with the appropriate response and effective deterrence.”
…AND ENDORSES SLAVERY REPARATIONS
“…we believe that it is legitimate to compensate peoples for what they endured in terms of colonialism, slavery and plundering of their resources, especially that similar redress was lavishly paid to one community from amongst the victims of the holocaust. The case of the holocaust cannot be permitted to become the only one of its kind, lest we set yet another pattern of racism ethnic discrimination.”
OIC MEMBERS
Afghanistan
Albania, Republic of
Algeria, People's Democratic Republic of
Azerbaijan, Republic of
Bahrain, State of
Bangladesh, People's Republic of
Benin, Republic of
Brunei Dar-us-Salaam, Sultanate of
Burkina Faso
Cameroon, Republic of
Chad, Republic of
Comoros, Federal Islamic Republic of the
Cote d'Ivoire, Republic of
Djibouti, Republic of
Egypt, Arab Republic of
Gabon, Republic of
Gambia, Republic of the
Guinea, Republic of
Guinea-Bissau, Republic of
Guyana, Republic of
Indonesia, Republic of
Iran, Islamic Republic of
Iraq, Republic of
Jordan, Hashemite Kingdom of
Kazakhstan, Republic of
Kuwait, State of
Kyrghyzistan, Republic of
Lebanon, Republic of
Libya, Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya
Malaysia
Maldives, Republic of
Mali, Republic of
Mauritania, Islamic Republic of
Morocco, Kingdom of
Mozambique, Republic of
Niger, Republic of
Nigeria, Federal Republic of
Oman, Sultanate of
Pakistan, Islamic Republic of
Palestine, State of
Qatar, State of
Saudi Arabia, Kingdom of
Senegal, Republic of
Sierra Leone, Republic of
Somalia, Democratic Republic of
Sudan, Republic of the
Surinam, Republic of the
Syrian Arab Republic
Tajikistan, Republic of
Togo, Republic of
Tunisia, Republic of
Turkey, Republic of
Turkmenistan, Republic of
Uganda, Republic of
United Arab Emirates, State of
Uzbekistan, Republic of
Yemen, Republic of
OIC OBSERVER STATES: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Republic of; Central African Republic; Thailand, Kingdom of.
