November (Web-only) 1999

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When the U.S. Department of State released its AnnualReporton International Religious Freedom for 1999, the first report of its kind, newspapers around the world editorialized on its claims. Here are translations of two Arabic newspaper stories, one from Lebanon, the other from Egypt.What Does America Want with the Religious Freedom Report?By Hazem AbdouAl-Liwaa' Al-Islami, October 21, 1999[Al Liwaa is a daily Arabic newspaper published in Beirut, Lebanon] The United States made beyond doubt a strange effort to intervene in the internal affairs of other countries, especially countries of the third world and the Islamic world in particular when it issued last month its report on religious freedom in the world in the frame of the religious freedom law. This law was issued by the American Congress in 1988 after a campaign lead by the Jew Frank Wolf [note: Rep. Wolf is not Jewish] and the Zionist-Christian Arlen Specter.The report spoke of the state of religion in 119 countries and focused on about thirty countries around the world accusing them openly of some sort of religious persecution against minorities. Most of these were Islamic countries. Besides China came Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.The report did not only raise the issue of the Copts in Egypt and some other religions in the Islamic world, but we also found it pointing out in a disgusting way that the Shi'ites are a minority which suffers from persecution at the hand of Sunni Moslems who form the majority in the Islamic world. This is an American attempt to attack the unity of the Islamic nation. We appreciate the attitude of Imam Mohammed Mahdi Shams Al-Din, president of the Islamic Shi'ite Council in Lebanon. He issued ...