A speech at a New Jersey inter-faith brunch by a member of the US National Spiritual Assembly about threats to freedom of religion sparked indignation amongst some of the Muslims present.

This report on NorthJersey.com gives the low-down:

Several Muslims said after the speech that they were offended by what they saw as Roberts’ singling out of Islam as a persecuting religion.

“I felt that he’s bashing Islam indirectly,” said Mehdi Eliefifi, president of the New Jersey Outreach Group, which works to bring different faiths together.

“It feeds into the stereotype, putting examples of bad behavior of individuals and governments as being the main theme of Islam,” he said.

Baha’is advocate and promote universal human rights, including freedom of religion or belief, believing that the human conscience is sacred and that nobody should fall victim to human rights abuses because of their religion or their ethnicity.

Besides religious persecution, Roberts asked members to speak out against genocide in Darfur. He spoke about freedom to worship as a “basic human right,” and used as another example of the abuse of this right the persecution of a native religious group in Brazil.

I haven’t had Mr Roberts’ experience, but I’m waiting for it.

Technorati Tags: New Jersey, inter-faith, freedom of religion, Muslims, Islam, human rights, freedom of religion or belief, genocide, Darfur