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Islamic Human Rights Commission
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2 October 2009

PRESS RELEASE: UK – IHRC expresses concern about the strategy to export a British government defined brand of Islam to Pakistan

Islamic Human Rights Commission is deeply concerned about the strategy to export a British government defined brand of Islam to Pakistan. The anti-terrorism strategy based on the severely flawed and failing British experiment of social engineering of Muslims in Britain, will be lead by 200 experts, who will be employed under taxpayers expense, to teach ‘’religious affairs’ and ‘non-extremism’ to Pakistanis.

IHRC would like remind the government of the statement made by the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, Asma Jahangir, in a report last year:

“It is not the Government’s role to look for the “true voices of Islam” or of any other religion or belief. Since religions or communities of belief are not homogenous entities it seems advisable to acknowledge and take into account the diversity of voices… the contents of a religion or belief should be defined by the worshippers themselves …”

IHRC chair Massoud Shadjareh states:

“Despite there being no evidence linking religiosity and violent extremism, or even that such an expensive strategy yields any significant successes; the government seems hell-bent on defining Islam for its adherents. We call on the government to target criminals and not communities, to police criminal actions and not beliefs.”

For more information please contact the Press Office on (+44) 20 8904 4222 or (+44) 07958522196, email: info@ihrc.org.[ENDS]

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The Islamic Human Rights Commission is an NGO in special consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council.

Islamic Human Rights Commission
PO Box 598
Wembley
HA9 7XH
United Kingdom

Telephone (+44) 20 8904 4222
Fax (+44) 20 8904 5183
Email: info@ihrc.org
Web: www.ihrc.org