Projet de loi portant assentiment à l'Accord de siège entre le Royaume de Belgique et l'Organisation de la Conférence islamique, fait à Bruxelles le 4 février 2011.
General information ¶
- Submitted by
- MR Swedish coalition
- Submission date
- Nov. 4, 2015
- Official page
- Visit
- Status
- Adopted
- Requirement
- Simple
- Subjects
- international organisation international agreement Islam seat of institution
Voting ¶
- Voted to adopt
- Groen CD&V Vooruit Ecolo LE PS | SP DéFI ∉ Open Vld N-VA LDD MR PVDA | PTB
- Voted to reject
- PP VB
Contact form ¶
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Discussion ¶
Dec. 3, 2015 | Plenary session (Chamber of representatives)
Full source
Filip Dewinter VB ⚙
Mr. Speaker, colleagues, in recent weeks there has been a lot of talk about the role of Saudi Arabia in the context of the terrorist attacks and especially also the radicalization of a non-essential part of the Muslim community in our country and in Europe. Today you can not only talk about it and prove lip service to your sudden struggle against Saudi Arabia and its wahabist counterparts from other countries; today you can actually do something, namely you oppose this bill approving the Settlement Agreement between our country and the Organization of the Islamic Conference, OIC.
What is there to be voted so quickly? The OIC, Organization of Islamic Cooperation, will be given the opportunity to open a kind of embassy with immunity from jurisdiction, immunity of OIC property, inviolability of the premises and a regulation for the movement of funds, the money of the OIC. The latter is not insignificant. I see that Mr. Metsu is not there. He’d better sit down because it’s going to be important. In the context of the cash flows of the OIC to our country and Europe, this is indeed not insignificant. We grant exemption from direct taxes on all assets. We will also give exemption from customs. We will also exempt the OIC from individual taxes on imported and exported goods and so on. The OIC is allowed to open some kind of embassy with us.
What is the OIC? Apparently not everyone is aware of this. The OIC is actually the only organization of countries based on a common belief, Islam. They have organized themselves as such to have sufficient power and power within the United Nations. Their main objective is to promote Islam. The organization was founded in 1969 following the attack on the Al-Aqs Mosque. Since then, 57 Islamic countries – even the unrecognized state of Palestine belongs to it – have their headquarters in Jeddah, a city in Saudi Arabia. You would have understood it well!
So it is not just an innocent club, which we give through the seat agreement a lot of privileges and thus also give the recognition that countries have with us when they have an embassy, among other things.
The OIC also makes very explicit what it wants and what it stands for. For example, in 1990, they recognized the Islamic Declaration of Human Rights, somewhat the counterpart of our Universal Declaration of Human Rights. If parties represented here in the hemisphere want to be able to count on party funding, they must sign the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in their party statutes. If they do not, they will not get a penny from the taxpayer. The club, which will give you all kinds of privileges in our country so soon through the seat agreement, does not recognize the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, but on the contrary: it has its own declaration.
You may be interested, even if you may feel a little uncomfortable, to know what is stated in the Cairo Declaration of the Human Rights of Islam, as recognized by the OIC. I read you a few articles shortly before from that Islamic Declaration of Human Rights of the OIC. The most interesting articles are articles 24 and 25. It states, I quote, “All rights and freedoms mentioned in this Declaration are subordinate to the Islamic Sharia.”You have heard that well: all rights and freedoms mentioned in this Declaration are subordinate to the Islamic Sharia. Article 25: “The Islamic Sharia is the only reference source for the interpretation and clarification of all articles of this Declaration.” Article 22 states that freedom of expression is limited to expressions consistent with the Sharia. Until then, the freedom of expression of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights according to Islam, prepared by the OIC
Article 6, for the ladies in the company tonight, states that the woman has her own rights and duties and that the husband, and only the husband, should take care of the maintenance of the family.
Article 10 states that there is no freedom of religion. It is explicitly forbidden to practice or convert to a religion other than Islam. Articles 19 and 22 list the punishments for converting to a religion other than Islam, the punishments for the Kafir, the majority of us. This is how it continues.
Our Minister of Foreign Affairs knows that all very well, but his excellent relations with Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates have made him blind and deaf for all those arguments for longer than today. The OIC is not an innocent club, on the contrary.
Can I also refer to what the Strategic Advisory Council International Flanders wrote in an opinion on the settlement agreement? I quote: “The OIC is not an undiscussed organization. The OIC’s views on human rights, terrorism and anti-Semitism, as well as on freedom of expression and equality between men and women are contrary to our ideas and values and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.” I have not said that, that says the Strategic Advisory Council International Flanders.
Ladies and gentlemen, in the last few days, many of you in the hemisphere and before the cameras of the television and the microphones of the radio have made all sorts of rumbling statements. The muscle balls were rolled again following the attacks in Paris and all that has come to light in the aftermath of the attacks in Paris.
In addition, the left has opened the attack on Saudi Arabia, which is late of course, because it could have done so when it had it for itself and provided ministers as part of the majority. The left has never done that. From the opposition, this is suddenly possible. I take records of that. However, when it really comes to doing something, it is always silent. You now have the opportunity to make clear to the OIC, with countries such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Sudan, the whole pleaded to wahhabite, extremist, salafist Muslim countries, also once again that we do not agree with them, that we do not pick up and will never endorse their Cairo Declaration of Human Rights according to Islam, that we want to limit and reduce the influence of such countries and that we want to limit the money flows from such countries to wahhabite and salafist mosques.
But what do you do? In the submitted statement you are doing just the opposite of what you have stated in the last few weeks. In Article 6 of the Headquarters Agreement, which you will approve later, you will even officially regulate the movement of funds – the movement of money is that – between the OIC and our country. You will even exempt it from tax. That’s what you’re going to do later, and that really stands in contrast to the muscle ball rolling of recent weeks about Saudi Arabia and the Wahhabist and Salafist countries.
I have no illusions about the fact that my arguments and arguments will have any effect on you. Later, at the next attack, when the media are again interested in the problem, you will again make the same hypocritical statements. If it really comes to it, you will not do anything at all, as we are accustomed to you.