Inner City Press -- Investigative Reporting From the United Nations to Wall Street to the Inner City

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, December 26 -- The Organization for Islamic Cooperation sent out a press release, quoting unnamed "sources at the OIC," providing a sanitized version of the government of Angola's pretext for destroying mosques.

  The OIC press release states that the Foreign Minister of Angola, Georges Rebelo Chicoti "clarifies that the destruction of mosques was because they were illegally constructed."

  The press release doesn't explain what the illegality was. As it turns out, "according to Angolan laws, a religious group must have 100,000 members and must be present in 12 out of the 18 provinces. There are only about 90,000 Muslims in Angola."

  So much for freedom of religion. But the tact of the OIC's press release leads one to believe that some solution might be in the offing, at least for Muslims. What's next: a Saudi royal pays to fly in 10,000 Muslims? Or paid conversions? What about other religions too? Where is the UN on this?

  In the justified criticism of Mariah Carey's big pay day singing in Angola, this issue does not seem to have been raised. A cynic might speculate, is the lack of freedom of religion in Angola material for a forthcoming song by Mariah Carey, described as a devout Episcopalian? Their numbers, at least in North America, are in decline, below two million. Merry Christmas! Watch this site.