Nov. 10, 2008
NIR BOMS and SHAYAN ARYA , THE JERUSALEM POST
Following the passage in Teheran of a new Islamic Penal Code, which codifies the death penalty for males who abandon Islam, the Iranian government called for a conference on “Religion in the Modern World.” With former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan, former high commissioner on human rights Mary Robinson, past prime ministers of Italy and Norway, and former president of Portugal in attendance, Muhammad Khatami, the former Iranian president, called upon the “religious leaders of the world to try new ways to create a peaceful co-existence and invite the world to establish peace and security.”