"Discussing Sharia here is an insult to our religion"

Those were the words pronounced by the representative of Egypt in UN when the representative form IHEU tried to discuss Sharia Law to with Human Rights... in the Human Rights Commission from UN. The reason they gave is that it was a "question out of order".

IHEU has responded to claims that the “Cairo Declaration of Human Rights in Islam” is “not an alternative” to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights but “complementary” to it. In a written statement to the UN Human Rights Council, IHEU opposed any resolution that seeks to limit the rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration.

On Human Rights Day, 10 December 2007, the Pakistani Ambassador to the UN Human Rights Council claimed that the Cairo Declaration of Human Rights in Islam, adopted in 1990 by the 56 member states of the Orgainsation of the Islamic Conference “is not an alternative” to the Universal Declaration but “complementary”. Complementary? Yet the Cairo Declaration makes no mention of the Universal Declaration and clearly states that: “All the rights and freedoms stipulated in this Declaration are subject to the Islamic Shari’ah”, and “The Islamic Shari’ah is the only source of reference for the explanation or clarification to any of the articles of this Declaration.”

The video containing the moment of the intervention of IHEU (International Humanist and Ethical Union) and the statement sent to UN by this organization can be found here.