Topic: Prevention of Violence Against Women
There were quite a few Muslims in the group.
Principle topics of discussion were the need for education and a stable family life. A Counterjihad delegate, who acted as rapporteur for the group, reminded those present that certain religious groups condone violence, and therefore children often learn to be violent as a result. This then creates a cycle of violence from generation to generation.
The rapporteur went on to say that Western society is based on non-violent Christian values and that these needed to be retained and encouraged, and also stated that it is essential for secular law always to supersede religious law, because that is the only way to prevent religiously inspired violence in the home and help children to understand that such violence is not and should not be the norm.
As the reader may imagine, this caused a huge stir even though no particular religion was named. The Muslims present obviously thought that they had been singled out and stated emphatically that Islam is not a violent religion and that it has only been hijacked by violent people.
NGO reps from Kyrgyzstan and Bosnia-Herzegovina immediately took the floor and complained that “[their critics] are against Islam as being seen as the main source of violence. Islam cherishes human values.” They said that Islam should not be targeted all the time, even though Islam was not even mentioned. As it turned out it was not the Counterjihad representative who brought up the ‘I’ word, but Islamic delegates themselves.