UN Report says Arab freedoms suffer in 2003

AMMAN (Reuters) - The U.S.-led war on terror has given autocratic Arab rulers an excuse to curb political freedoms in their countries further, according to a United Nations report released on Monday. "Perhaps the gravest repercussion of the war on terror is that it gave ruling regimes in some Arab countries spurious justification for curbing freedoms through an expanded definition of terrorism," said the U.N.'s Arab Human Development Report 2003.

The report, covering some 270 million Arabs, was launched in Amman by Rima Khalaf Hunaidi, U.N. Assistant Secretary General and regional director of UNDP's Regional Bureau for Arab states.Hunaidi, head of the team of 40 Arab intellectuals who wrote the report, told Reuters the 200-page study addresses challenges facing Arabs whose fears grow of cultural dissolution in a global culture."The truth is that Arab culture has no choice but to engage ..It cannot enclose itself and live in the past and inherited culture," Hunaidi said.The report, on Arabs by Arabs, cited wider censorship -- from restricting internet access to suppressing publication of material deemed encouraging of "terrorism."

Arab governments also used the Arab-Israeli conflict and tensions over war in Iraq to curb civil liberties and domestic opposition in the name of "mobilizing" against the enemy. Non-governmental groups suffered more legal and practical constraints in 2003, while progress toward women's empowerment regressed in some countries and slightly progressed in others.The U.S. occupation of Iraq posed a challenge for Iraqis after years of totalitarian rule to recover their wealth and set up the good governance needed to rebuild their country.The report avoids any judgment on U.S. post-war goals but notes Arabs perceived the war as an attempt to "restructure the region by foreign forces pursuing their own interests." A wave of anti-Arab sentiment in the West that was widely publicized intensified popular disaffection in the region.

Relations between Arabs and the West have come under strain since the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, with Arabs subjected to defamation. This reflects ignorance and unjustified abuse in many cases, Hunaidi said. The report cited ethnic profiling of Arabs and Muslims in the United States. The steep drop in Arab students studying in America was curtailing "knowledge acquisition" opportunities. But Arabs should not close the door to the outside world and to cultural dialogue, Hunaidi said. The report calls for a critique of some Islamic teachings viewed as an impediment to modernity and the quest for an "Arab renaissance." Without naming Saudi Arabia, it cites "the collusion between autocratic regimes and some conservative religious scholars" that interpret Islam to suit their policies. Underground Islamic groups advocating violence were on the rise in the absence of "peaceful and effective political channels for dealing with injustices in the Arab world."There is a need to "free religion from the sway of politics and to free religious institutions from political authorities, governments and radical religious movements." But many of the Western-leaning Arab intellectuals who wrote the report called for acknowledging "ijtihad" or scholarship and the right to differ in Islam.

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http://reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=3644722


The Nobel Committee has its annual Nobel Peace Prize.....maybe the UN sould launch its own version....the UN War Prize?????

I gotta get me one of them UN reportwritin jobs.

this further oppressing of ppl's rights in the name of fighting terraism particularly in Saudi. The thing is anti-arabic propoganda didn't start with 9-11, it's been brewing in the US for years. Do a survey of articles written about Arabic & Muslim ppl you will find for the past 15 years about 99% of all articles in major publications are negative.