MAKKAH, 15 January 2003 — The Muslim World League said yesterday human cloning was tantamount to “heresy” and denounced the “atheist” ideas of a sect called the Raelians, which claims to have arranged the successful birth of two cloned babies. “The international community should stand up to the heresy of human cloning which ... violates divine laws,” said MWL Secretary-General Abdullah ibn Abdul Mohsen Al-Turki in a message to world governments. “World governments and various organizations must ban human cloning and lay down the legal parameters for gene scientists,” he said, quoted by the Saudi Press Agency. The league “denounces the atheist ideas promoted by the Raelians ... who do not believe in God” and calls for a “ban on experiments in human cloning,” the MWL chief said. (AFP)
