Arab Liberals speak out

From Iraq the Model comes this letter by prominent Arab Liberals to the U.N. It points out the danger of terrorist inciting Fatwas and calls upon the U.N. to establish an international tribunal to prosecute individuals who use religion to incite terrorist acts. I am not entirely in favor of their plan, but the fact that such people are speaking out, and speaking out strongly against this behavior is a good sign. The reason I do not like this plan, is that I think the U.N. is too corrupt and undemocratic to be given this power. While the U.N. is far better than the Arab governments that shelter these clerics I do not like the idea of an unelected body being responsible for prosecuting people because of their speech. (note, this is not really a free speech issue, as incitement of violence has not been historically protected speech, but in a system without sufficient checks and balances it could become so easily) My belief is that democracy in the Arab world is the path to solving this problem, as well as other factors that are feeding the terrorist threat. This bit of the letter sums up what I see to be the problems in the Arab world:

By these “fatwas” all terrorists have died, or will die, fully convinced that they will immediately enter Paradise. Of course, we are not excluding other causes for committing terrorist acts, such as the ticking-bomb of population explosion with its resultant illiteracy, poverty, unemployment, backwardness in education systems, reactionary religious teaching, and, above all, living under dictatorial systems of governments in almost all Arab countries.

Despite my concerns with their solution though, I am very encouraged by the fact that this letter exists, and by the positive response it has recieved by many in the Arab world.