shame of islam said:
You are quite naive to think because a government "signs" a piece of paper it will enforce it. Pity they don't teach history as rigorously as they should nowadays. The Munich and the Helsinki Accords come most dramatically to mind.
No. Arab countries signed it because it was an easy thing to do. Some may enforce it, but most don't. I've lived in the ME, you I assume haven't or you wouldn't be arguing this line of reasoning. If you seek "proof" try researching it. There are volumes of Arabic poetry about it. Sharia is pretty clear about it. And so on. If you don't believe it, you just don't want to be convinced.
Hmmm I guess one could say that I am hopeful that if they signed the conventions and ratified them, that they would be enforced. Call me optimistic. Now as to the point at hand.
I have spent a couple of the years of my early childhood living with my parents in Saudia Arabia and I actually called my parents this morning to ask them about this issue (it's been bugging me a bit), and my father who'd lived and worked in the country for nearly 5 years there told me that he had no idea what you were on about. Not once had he ever even heard that paedophilia was so commonly practiced as you claim it to be. He'd never once been approached and as he recounted to me, no one who he knew there, be they the natives or tourists were ever approached as you mentioned that your friends were. He visited Egypt several times and he never once was he or anyone else around him ever approached. Maybe you just hung out at the wrong place with the wrong people... who really knows? As in Thailand and Malaysia, in some areas, child abuse is accepted by the community as a form of income as parents and pimps sell the children to overseas travellers as prostitutes. The law has changed to deal with this vile practice, but again, it is hard to convict the bastards who do this when very few children come forth and the only way the foreigners and the perpetrators in Thailand or Malaysia can be caught is if the police set them up. As I'm sure you are aware, some disgusting individuals in these countries organise sex tours for paedophiles. But the sexual abuse of children in the Asian countries are widely reported. That is the difference here. If it is so prevalent in the ME, why is it not reported?
As for the enforcement of the laws. To my knowledge (having read a report on this last year), the majority of Arab countries had either already or were in the process of re-writing their laws to conform to the Conventions that were signed. Whether the perpetrators of this disgusting crimes are brought to court would depend on whether the child reports it. However, the law is in place to convict the abuser, similarly to the way it is here in Australia and I assume the US, Canada and the UK. But I guess, like here in the West, many children do not come forward. And seeing that child abuse is a taboo in just about every country on Earth, children may feel scared to come forward to seek help and justice.
And again you missed the point. Abuse exists in the West in schools, churches etc and is a pariah in our cultures. It's not condoned and it's criminalized [and enforced- a key point]. What it isn't- another key point- is culturally accepted by a large portion of the population as it is in the ME.
Again I ask, where is the proof that it is so widely accepted in the ME? Surely if it is so widely practiced, that human rights organisations would be reporting it, law journals would be reporting it and organisations such as the Red Cross and UNICEF would have a number of reports on it. I haven't found one as yet. I'm not denying that you are telling the truth, you may be and you may not be, only you know that for sure. All I ask is that you give me reports (even one) and a link, detailing this disgusting phenomenon.
I do understand. But, and here is the difference, the numbers aren't equal. It is FAR more prevailent in the ME than in the West. You're talking hundreds, maybe a few thousand in the West and hundreds of thousands in the ME. It's a matter of quantatative difference.
Having done a very brief research on this issue, I've found reports of incidents, much as one would find such reports in the West. I have not been able to find reports that sex abuse is as prominent as you've said it is. But please, if you have the sources of this disgusting phenomenon, post the site links as I'd be very interested to read up on this as if you are actually correct, I find it strange that it is never reported anywhere. Not even in human rights journals.
