Says Mark Harding:

…Take a read.
God bless Canada.

Brussels Process
Launched By The International Civil Liberties Alliance On 9 July 2012

The conference was organised in response to the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC)’s Istanbul Process, which seeks to institute a global blasphemy law that would ban freedom of expression under sharia doctrine worldwide. Many governments are actively aiding the Istanbul Process, rather than opposing it as they should to preserve the liberties of their citizens. The European Union’s offer to host the next meeting of the OIC’s Istanbul Process shows that organization’s willingness to impose severe restrictions on traditional rights and freedoms of citizens within the European Union. The principal purpose of the International Human Rights and Freedom of Speech Conference was to encourage an open and fact-based public debate on these issues, and to provide policy guidance for political leaders, especially those who themselves are raising the alarm over the OIC’s totalitarian sharia doctrines against free expression, civil liberties, women’s rights, homosexual rights and religious freedom.

The highlight of the conference was the formal presentation of the Defender of Freedom Award by Canadian author Mark Steyn to Lars Hedegaard, founder of the Danish Free Press Society (Trykkefrihedsselskabet) and the International Free Press Society.

The principal outcome of ICLA’s 9 July Conference in the European Parliament was the “Brussels Declaration to Safeguard Individual Liberties and Human Rights.” That Declaration describes and launches a systematic ‘Brussels Process,’ designed to stimulate public debate on the conflict between sharia and liberty; to provide a counterweight to the efforts of the OIC to impose blasphemy laws in Europe and other countries; to re-establish standards of good governance and reasonable foreign relations based on the UN Declaration of Human Rights and national constitutions; and to reject the Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam as a basis for any discussions on human rights and civil liberties. Working Groups for the Brussels Process were organized to develop legislative initiatives and briefings for policymakers and the media, in order to work to implement the Brussels Process as a moderate and prudent approach to protect free expression and human rights. The Brussels Declaration was developed with ongoing consultation with legislators in several countries.

The Conference was attended by participants from eighteen countries including Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, UK, and the USA.

The International Civil Liberties Alliance (ICLA) is a human rights organisation dedicated, in the spirit of classical liberalism, to protecting democracy, freedom and individual liberties from religious and political doctrines that oppose those rights and liberties. ICLA does so through its voluntary members’ work to endorse, coordinate and promote educational and advocacy campaigns, legislative initiatives and changes in policies of governments and civil society.

More information can be found at: http://www.libertiesalliance.org/brusselsconference/ (…)

List of Speakers:

• Mark Steyn (Canada), commenter and author of “America Alone” & “After America”
• Lars Hedegaard (Denmark), book author and President of the International Free Press Society
• Prof. Hans Jansen (Netherlands), retired Professor of Modern Islamic Thought at the University of Utrecht
• Sabatina James (Germany), apostate from Islam and author of three books
• Pierre Cassen, chief redactor of “Riposte Laïque”, Author
• Alexandre del Valle, author, co-founder of the “Geopolitical observatory of the Mediterranean Sea”
• Paul Weston (Great Britain), Chairman of the British Freedom Party
• Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff (Austria), lecturer on Islamic politics and victim of sharia-compliant “hate speech” laws
• Magdi Allam (Italy), apostate from Islam, convert to Catholicism
• Nidra Poller (France), book author and commenter on challenges from Islam
• Gavin Boby (UK), Law and Freedom Foundation
• Ingrid Carlqvist (Sweden), President of the Swedish Free Press Society
• Alain Wagner (France), leader of the Stop Sharia campaign
• Conny Axel Meier (born1956), German publicist, Chairman of Bürgerbewegung Pax Europa (BPE)
• Ned May, a freelance writer, editor, and computer programmer living in Central Virginia
• Sam van Rooy, editor of two books with essays on the dangers of Islam and of the crisis of the European Union
• Valentina Colombo, Senior Fellow at the European Foundation for Democracy, founder of Vincere la Paura (Overcome Fear)

2012 Brussels Declaration

To Safeguard Individual Liberties and Human Rights

International Conference for Free Speech & Human Rights

To Preserve Free Speech, Civil Liberties, Human Rights and Democracy, against all efforts to injure and usurp those universal principles, we call upon leaders in all nations to support this 2012 Brussels Declaration to Safeguard Individual Liberties and Human Rights:

Reasserting that Human rights and liberties are universal, individual, equal, inalienable, and self-evident irrespective of philosophical, cultural or religious considerations, as a matter of long-held principle;

Considering that any honest defender of Democracy has the right and the duty to uphold and defend free speech, civil liberties and human rights;

Affirming the irrefutable fact that sharia law as articulated and applied is incompatible with and destructive to free speech, civil liberties and human rights and as such is incompatible with the fundamental principles of democracy (as stated in the 13 Feb 2003 judgment of the ECHR);

Acknowledging that the declaration known as “Cairo Declaration of Human Right in Islam” also commonly referred to as the “Cairo Declaration” curtails all human rights under sharia law and sharia normative behavior restrictions (CDHRI Articles 22, 23, 24)on the pretense that “All human beings form one family whose members are united by their subordination to Allah”(CDHRI Article 1);

Observing that the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), being the creator of Cairo Declaration and its current main proponent has, by its continuous and single-minded activity, proven to be the principal international politico-religious organization working to restrict free speech, civil liberties and human rights and to enforce sharia in the world;

Asserting that any official endorsement or promotion of the Cairo Declaration or any cooperation with OIC that leads, by the test of consequences, to more enforcement of sharia anywhere in the world identifies its perpetrator as an active opponent of Democracy, freedom of speech, civil liberties and human rights;

Noting that such an identification renders illegitimate any attempt by the perpetrator to discuss or negotiate matters involving freedom of speech, civil liberties and human rights in any local, national or international forums;

The signatories solemnly require of their governments and civil society:

1. To commence a process, to be known as the Brussels Process, to implement the content of this declaration through education and policy initiatives at all levels of government and sectors of civil society, in order to safeguard the future liberties and rights of our nations and our children, so that all members of the human family may prosper as free individuals.
2. To decline any invitation to participate in any local, national or international forum to discuss civil liberties, free speech or human rights, if the organizers – individual persons or organizations – are known proponents of the Cairo Declaration or societal sharia enforcement unless the negotiated or discussed topic is a transition of their codification and implementation of human rights to the UNDHR definitions and away from the Cairo Declaration definitions.
3. To protest against any kind of participation in a local, national or international meeting dedicated to civil liberties, free speech or human rights’ discussions or negotiations by any known proponents of the Cairo Declaration or societal sharia enforcements, unless they are only attending in an observational capacity or negotiating their entry in the Brussels Process.
4. To initiate a thorough inquiry before any bilateral or multilateral cooperation about civil liberties, free speech or human rights related matters, in order to clearly identify any participants who are proponents for the Cairo Declaration or sharia law, or who have cooperated or collaborated with the OIC or its associated organizations.
5. To reject and forbid any public funding for promotion of the Cairo Declaration or of any sharia societal implementation and enforcement, because such promotions are a direct attack against our most fundamental democratic principles and human rights.
6. To stop any cooperation with all known proponents of the Cairo Declaration at a national or international level, when that cooperation has as its aim or result, a restriction of civil liberties, free speech or human rights in a democratic country, until those proponents repudiate the Cairo Declaration.
7. To extend cooperation and support in all forums to former proponents of the Cairo Declaration who repudiate the suppression by the OIC and sharia law of civil liberties, free speech and human rights, and who assert that human rights and liberties are universal, individual, equal, inalienable, and self-evident irrespective of philosophical, cultural or religious considerations.
8. To engage with civil society and official organizations that work to safeguard individual liberties from suppression by shariah law, especially those located in nations that are signatories of the Cairo Declaration or members of the OIC, to encourage dialogue, education and understanding on individual liberties and human rights, as these terms have been commonly used in Western nations.

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Also, this is a new report/hearing from Christian Solidarity:

Christian Solidarity International: New Report Documents Forced Disappearance Of Egyptian Christian Women

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“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”
– Edmund Burke

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