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Malaysia Among Countries Faring Worst In Faith-based Discrimination, Says Global Study

spnadmin

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Jun 17, 2004
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Malaysia among countries faring worst in faith-based discrimination, says global study

http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/...g-worst-in-faith-based-discrimination-says-gl

In 13 countries around the world, all of them Muslim, people who openly espouse atheism or reject the official state religion of Islam face execution under the law, according to a detailed study issued today.

And beyond the Islamic nations, even some of the West's apparently most democratic governments at best discriminate against citizens who have no belief in a god and at worst can jail them for offences dubbed blasphemy, it said.

The study, The Freethought Report 2013, was issued by the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU), a global body uniting atheists, agnostics and other religious skeptics, to mark United Nations' Human Rights Day on Tuesday.

"This report shows that the overwhelming majority of countries fail to respect the rights of atheists and freethinkers although they have signed U.N agreements to treat all citizens equally," said IHEU President Sonja Eggerickx.

The study covered all 192 member states in the world body and involved lawyers and human rights experts looking at statute books, court records and media accounts to establish the global situation.

A first survey of 60 countries last year showed just seven where death, often by public beheading, is the punishment for either blasphemy or apostasy - renouncing belief or switching to another religion which is also protected under U.N. accords.

But this year's more comprehensive study showed six more, bringing the full list to Afghanistan, Iran, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritania, Nigeria, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, United Arab Emirates and Yemen.

This year's more comprehensive study showed six more, bringing the full list to Afghanistan, Iran, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritania, Nigeria, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, United Arab Emirates and Yemen.

In others, like India in a recent case involving a leading critic of religion, humanists say police are often reluctant or unwilling to investigate murders of atheists carried out by religious fundamentalists.

Across the world, the report said, "there are laws that deny atheists' right to exist, revoke their citizenship, restrict their right to marry, obstruct their access to public education, prevent them working for the state..."

Criticism of religious faith or even academic study of the origins of religions is frequently treated as a crime and can be equated to the capital offence of blasphemy, it asserted.

EU states

The IHEU, which has member bodies in some 50 countries and supporters in many more where such organisations are banned, said there was systematic or severe discrimination against atheists across the 27-nation European Union.

The situation was severe in Austria, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Malta and Poland where blasphemy laws allow for jail sentences up to three years on charges of offending a religion or believers.

In these and all other EU countries, with the exception of the Netherlands and Belgium which the report classed as "free and equal," there was systemic discrimination across society favouring religions and religious believers.

In the United States, it said, although the situation was "mostly satisfactory" in terms of legal respect for atheists' rights, there were a range of laws and practices "that equate being religious with being American."

In Latin America and the Caribbean, atheists faced systemic discrimination in most countries except Brazil, where the situation was "mostly satisfactory," and Jamaica and Uruguay which the report judged as "free and equal."

Across Africa, atheists faced severe or systemic violations of their rights to freedom of conscience but also grave violations in several countries, including Egypt, Libya and Morocco, and nominally Christian Zimbabwe and Eritrea. - Reuters, December 10, 2013.
 

choochoochan

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Nov 4, 2013
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Malaysia is pretty much a joke. They have ruled that "Allah" can only be used by Muslims. Where does that leave Arab Christians, Arab Jews and even Sikhs who refer to the one God periodically as Allah in the SGGS? Myopia is rampant in Malaysia.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-24516181

And their bumiputra policies which weld the identity of being a Muslim with a born Malay has sought to dilute the cultural influences of other Non-Malay Muslims.
 

Gyani Jarnail Singh

Sawa lakh se EK larraoan
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Jul 4, 2004
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KUALA LUMPUR MALAYSIA
Malaysia is pretty much a joke. They have ruled that "Allah" can only be used by Muslims. Where does that leave Arab Christians, Arab Jews and even Sikhs who refer to the one God periodically as Allah in the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji? Myopia is rampant in Malaysia.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-24516181

And their bumiputra policies which weld the identity of being a Muslim with a born Malay has sought to dilute the cultural influences of other Non-Malay Muslims.


And yet we "beleive" in Nelson Mandela...Mahatma Gandhi..and all that...when in reality our very own Founding father..the Real True blood Gandhi and Mandela combined DIED long ago..He was our First PM - Tunku Abdul Rahman..a statesman and a Prince...and the day he closed his eyes..our new born leaders threw all that into the dustbin...BUT we still beleive in Mandela and his fight agianst Apartheid..while we happily go on creating and fostering APART-HATE among Malaysians..Officially sanctioned Apart-hate policies etc.
 

choochoochan

SPNer
Nov 4, 2013
75
30
And yet we "beleive" in Nelson Mandela...Mahatma Gandhi..and all that...when in reality our very own Founding father..the Real True blood Gandhi and Mandela combined DIED long ago..He was our First PM - Tunku Abdul Rahman..a statesman and a Prince...and the day he closed his eyes..our new born leaders threw all that into the dustbin...BUT we still beleive in Mandela and his fight agianst Apartheid..while we happily go on creating and fostering APART-HATE among Malaysians..Officially sanctioned Apart-hate policies etc.

History of SE Asia was never my favourite. But what was Tunku's stand on the bumiputra policy? I thought LKY voiced out against it, and got booted partly because of his opposition to the policy.

In Singapore, however, the malays are given preferential treatment as the original inhabitants of the island. Which is why, a good lot of ethnic Arabs assimilated into the Malay population. To obtain benefits. It's a shame, really. Cultural and ethnic identity must remain despite your religion.
 
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