Muslim countries are biggest abusers of human trafficking

Reuters/NY Times:

Malaysia dismissed on Monday possible U.S. sanctions over human trafficking and warned Washington of alienating Muslims after it blacklisted mostly Islamic countries.

The U.S. last month ranked Muslim states -- Bahrain, Kuwait, Iran, Malaysia, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria and Qatar -- as among the worst human trade offenders, and said they may face sanctions.

"We are not bothered about...the sanctions," Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said. "I don't think we need to respond to that sort of pressure."

"The U.S. really needs to be friendly to Muslim countries," he told retired Malaysian diplomats. "This is not a good development as they have just appointed a special envoy to OIC." Malaysia heads the 57-nation Organization of Islamic Conference.

U.S. President George W. Bush said last week in a speech to mark the 50th anniversary of the Islamic Centre in Washington that the appointment would demonstrate to Muslim communities "our interest in respectful dialogue and continued friendship."

In its annual report on human trafficking published last month, the U.S. State Department named 16 countries subjected to possible sanctions, including the loss of U.S. aid and U.S. support for World Bank and International Monetary Fund loans.

Syed Hamid said Malaysia would introduce a new law soon to prevent human trafficking.

"In Malaysia's case, we do not need to be apologetic," he said. "We have moved to the right direction. The law against human trafficking is going to be passed by parliament in this current session."

Still, Indonesia and other countries that supply most of the workers say Malaysia has not done enough.

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Muslim countries were some of the biggest slavers before the British made the slave trade impractical by using the Royal Navy to stop it. I think this guy has got the situation backwards. Muslim countries need to improve their human rights record to gain respect for their religion.