In light of recent events, Qatar is drafting an international law to ban the abuse of religions and legally prosecute those who perpetuate such attacks, the country’s Minister of Justice has said, according to QNA.

The global outrage prompted by inflammatory Danish cartoons, the urinating of Qurans by US soldiers in Afghanistan and most recently, a YouTube video denigrating the Prophet Muhammad are among the reasons the world needs such a law, officials at the Legal and Judicial Studies Centre said during a forum this week.

Gulf Times reports:

“Abuse of religion has become a means for angering Muslims and drawing them away from assuming their role in the development of human civilisation and taking care of their important issues,” pointed out a statement by the forum, calling for the creation of decisive legal tools to criminalise such actions globally.

Once the new law is drafted, it will be presented regionally and to the International Union for Muslim Scholars, which Qatar-based Islamic scholar Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi chairs. 

Officials said the law would take freedom of expression into consideration, but not at the expense of world peace or stability.

“Every religion has its major and minor sanctities and these have to be respected by all,” Qaradawi told the forum, as reported by Gulf Times. “Freedom has boundaries and it is limited by the freedom of others.” 

The forum also called on the International Telecommunications Union to adopt rules that allow them to ban the spread of abusive materials. 

Thoughts?

Credit: Photo by Oliver Hammond