Saudis tell UN that Muslim
prejudice is ‘racism’
Saudi Arabia has called the United Nations
to focus on ‘eliminating Islamophobia’ as
an outworking of tackling online racism
and xenophobia.
Meshaal Bin Ali Al Balawi, Saudi’s Head of
Human Rights at the United Nations Mission
in Geneva, addressed
the Human Rights
Council, flagging the internet as a ‘space for
practicing racism’ as he called for the UN to
work towards finding a ‘solution’. The Saudi
leader stated that the world needs to ‘prohibit
racial discrimination in all its forms’.
Sudan: death penalty for leaving Islam abolished
The Sovereignty Council of Sudan has now officially abolished the death penalty for apostasy after the Chairman of the Council, Lieutenant General Abdelfattah El Burhan, signed several new laws and amendments.
The cancellation of Article 126 of Sudan’s 1991 Criminal Code, which stipulated that those found guilty of apostasy are to be sentenced to death, was announced in a press statement by the Ministry of Justice. The article has historically been used to target religious minorities. For example, in May 2014, Meriam Ibrahim was sentenced to death by hanging for apostasy by the Public Order Court in El Haj Yousif, Khartoum (although a court of appeal overturned the original ruling in June 2014).
Bible, Islam and the British Museum
While calm and reasoned dialogue is always the preferred mode of debate, some on both sides have a tendency to throw out unsubstantiated, even incorrect claims in their efforts to discredit the other side.
One such claim being made by certain sectors of the Islamic community is that the Bible is a collection of distortions and that 'Christians do not possess any authentic records or acceptable arguments for the authenticity of the books of either the Old Testament or the New Testament'. This view is currently being expressed openly by Muslim speakers at a range of venues such as Speakers Corner and Trafalgar Square, and was to have been the subject for a debate organised by the radical Muslim group Al-Muhajiroun at the Royal Albert Hall a few weeks ago. As evangelical Chris-tians, we need to know how to respond to such claims. We may not all be involved in active polemic, but certainly anyone trying to talk with Muslims about the Christian faith will be better equipped for the task if they can respond calmly and authoritatively to attacks on the authenticity and accuracy of the Bible.
