Arab MPs seek UN ban on religious offenses

Arab parliamentarians urged the United Nations to adopt a resolution banning offenses against Islam and other religions and to convene a conference on terrorism.

At the end of the 12th General Conference of the Arab Inter-Parliamentary Union (AIPU), the delegates strongly denounced offensive cartoons of the Prophet Muhammed published in European dailies, a statement said. The parliamentarians said the cartoons were "part of a campaign by Zionist and hostile circles in the West to deface" Islam.

They called on "Arab and Muslim governments to work intensively to secure a UN resolution that bans offenses against religions... and bring to justice" those who make attacks on religions, the statement said.

It added that the parliamentarians from 16 Arab states condemned terrorism and expressed their "rejection of any attempt to link terrorism with Islam."

They also called for a UN-sponsored international conference "to define terrorism," the statement added.

The parliamentarians also denounced threats by donor nations to cut aid to the Palestinians in the wake of the Hamas election victory and renewed their support for a sovereign and united Iraq.

They also expressed their "solidarity with Syria" which is facing an international probe into the murder last year of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq al-Hariri.