On the morning of September 30, the Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.) human rights group held a pro-human rights rally protesting the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC)’s attempts to continue to justify their rejection of Universal Human Rights to all people of every religion, race, and national origin deserve around the world.

This protest was held in Washington DC at 1200 17th Street NW,  Washington, D.C.  in front of the building where the United States Institute of Peace currently resides.  The U.S.-government funded NGO “United States Institute for Peace” (USIP) hosted a public event featuring the Secretary-General, OIC, H.E. Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu. The USIP’s event was describing as seeking to “promote peaceful coexistence between the U.S. and Islamic states” and to “advance mutual interests.”

Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.)’s Jeffrey Imm spoke, while another R.E.A.L. volunteer passed out a flier to the public on the OIC’s Cairo Declaration of Human Rights; this OIC Cairo Declaration demands that human rights be based on Islamic Sharia law.

Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.)’s Jeffrey Imm protested that humanity’s “mutual interests” begin with recognizing and supporting our universal human rights, not a qualified version of human rights based only on Sharia.  Imm stated that the “path to peace” starts with such universal human rights for all people.  In his protest, Imm objected to the USIP’s invitation to the OIC, based on the OIC’s creation of the “Cairo Declaration of Human Rights”, which he described as “a rejection of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that recognizes freedom of conscience, freedom to change religion, freedom of speech, and other freedoms for all women and men that we view as universal human rights — the OIC-created Cairo Declaration of Human Rights rejects such human rights and only permits those ‘rights’ as interpreted by Sharia law.”

Imm stated “The universal human rights of women, men, people of all religious, all races, and all ethnicity must never require a caveat or a qualification.  The women oppressed in Saudi Arabia, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Somalia, Malaysia, and around the world must end.  The Sharia rationalization for their oppression must end.  The stonings, the abuse of women, the legalized rape, the so-called ‘honor killings’ all must end.  But in every case, these oppressors of women rationalize such attacks on women based on Sharia, just as the OIC uses Sharia as a basis for denying universal human rights in its Cairo Declaration.”

Imm further stated: ” The extremist oppression of religious minorities rationalized by Sharia must end.  We have seen such oppression of both non-Muslims and Muslims through religious extremism.  We have seen a mob of 20,000 attack Christians, burn their homes, burn their church, and burn them alive, based of such extremist beliefs.  We see Buddhists killed in Thailand, and Hindus killed and oppressed in Pakistan and throughout Asia.  We have seen an endless series of mosques attacked by other Muslim sects in their intolerance against other Muslims – and daily we hear of other Muslims killed by such attacks.  Such religious extremism is not just a regional or a political issue, it is a global crisis that must be addressed in considering the path to human peace.”

Imm lifted up a sign showing excerpts from the OIC’s Cairo Declaration and stated: “As you can see in the fliers we are handing out, and as you can see by this sign, the OIC’s Cairo Declaration rejects fundamental aspects of our universal human rights.”

Imm read out excerpts from the OIC’s Cairo Declaration:
— “[Article 19d] There shall be no crime or punishment except as provided for in the Shari’a.”
— “[Article 22a] Everyone shall have the right to express his opinion freely in such manner as would not be contrary to the principles of the Shari’a.”
— “[Article 22b] Everyone shall have the right to advocate what is right, and propagate what is good, and warn against what is wrong and evil according to the norms of Islamic Shari’a.”
— “[Article 22c] Information is a vital necessity to society.  It may not be exploited or misused in such a way as may violate sanctities and the dignity of Prophets, undermine moral and ethical values or disintegrate, corrupt or harm society or weaken its faith.”
— “[Article 24] All the rights and freedoms stipulated in this Declaration are subject to the Islamic Shari’a.”
— “[Article 25] The Islamic Shari’a is the only source of reference for the explanation or clarification to any of the articles of this Declaration.”.”

Imm stated:  “Our universal human rights are not dependent on any religion, any nation, or any organization.  This is why they are inalienable human rights – they can’t be taken away.  And our inalienable human rights have no caveat, no qualifier, and no national boundaries as to their existence.  This is why they are ‘universal’ human rights – they apply everywhere – to the women oppressed in Saudi Arabia, to the Afghanistan man threatened with apostasy by an Afghan court for changing his religion, to the Pakistan Christians being burned to death, to the women imprisoned in Iran for their religious beliefs,  and to the Iraqis whose mosques and lives are regularly threatened by supremacists that oppose other sects of Islam.   These are the truths that we hold self-evident – that all men and women are created equal – that all human beings have their universal human rights of equality and liberty – not with any caveats, not with any qualifications, and not dependent on any religion or religious view.”

Imm continued:  “To Americans, such universal human rights are so fundamental to our identities and our lives that when they are denied, it is a national crisis, and we must demand such freedoms.  This is why when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. stated on August 28, 1963, not far from here at the Lincoln Memorial that black civil rights were a part of the ‘promissory note’ that America’s founding fathers signed with future generations – there is no question that this too was a truth that was self-evident.  And today, such unqualified, universal human rights should be a truth that should be self-evident to the United States Institute of Peace, funded by American taxpayer dollars.”

Imm held up the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and stated “Such universal human rights were codified in a Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the United Nations and the nations of the world on December 10, 1948.  This Universal Declaration of Human Rights has no qualifiers, it has no caveats, and it has no asterisks.  There are no qualifiers for equality, there are no caveats for religious freedom and freedom of conscience, and there are asterisks that state such fundamental human freedoms are only dependent on what Sharia or any other religious law decides that we have a right to enjoy.   No, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is for ‘all human beings’ and for ‘everyone’ everywhere.”

“Article 1 reads: ‘All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.'”

“Article 2 reads: ‘Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.'”

“But today on the second floor of this building, the United States Institute of Peace is meeting with the OIC to determine what our ‘mutual interests’ might be.   Our ‘mutual interests’ begin with acknowledging the Universal Declaration of Human Rights for all people around the world.  The United States Institute of Peace is also meeting with the OIC to find the ‘path to peace.’   But the ‘path to peace’ must begin with our universal human rights!  We will never begin to tread on the ‘path to peace’ as long as we do not challenge the OIC to end its denial of the universal human rights of our fellow human beings through its Sharia-based Cairo Declaration.”

Imm continued “In America, we have historical lessons with those who have sought to reject such universal human rights.  When we faced the problem of institutionalized white supremacism in America, we did not decide that some states, some governments, and some individuals had the right to have a different code of human rights than the rest of us.  We did not ‘keep the peace’ in America, we did not find ‘mutual interests’ in America, by sitting down with white supremacists and accepting a white supremacist code of human rights for certain parts of our nation.  We challenged those who would deny such universal human rights then, and we must challenge those who would deny such universal human rights today.”

“Just as we could not accept ‘free states’ and ‘slave states’, so we must also not accept a ‘free world’ and a ‘slave world’ today.  We have only one world, one Earth.  We must reject the idea that any nation, any organization, has the right to deny the universal human rights of our fellow human beings.   These too are truths that we must find self-evident.”

“We challenge the United States Institute of Peace to recognize these truths and to challenge the OIC to reject its Sharia-based Cairo Declaration that denies the most fundamental universal human rights for all people.   Until the OIC acknowledges and accepts such basic human rights fundamental to any ‘path to peace,’ we must protest the OIC and defy its influence in the United States Government and around the world.   We support universal human rights, the OIC does not!”