Thursday, March 26, 2009

Thou Shalt Not Defame Islam

The UNCCPIt’s official: today the U.N. Human Rights Council voted to adopt a resolution against the defamation of religions. It’s an attempt to abridge the right of free speech in order to protect Islam from criticism and insult.

The UN document archive where the text is supposed to be available is down now, so I haven’t been able to read the full resolution. I assume it’s very similar to last December’s General Assembly resolution. If that’s the case, it singles out Islam, and only Islam, for special mention.

An international and very multicultural list of 188 NGOs — led by UN Watch and including the International Free Press Society — has co-signed a statement objecting to the resolution and calling upon “all governments not to accept or legitimize a Durban Review Conference outcome that directly or indirectly supports the ‘defamation of religions’ campaign at the expense of basic freedoms and individual human rights.”

Here’s what Al-Reuters has to say about this dubious occasion:

A United Nations forum on Thursday passed a resolution condemning “defamation of religion” as a human rights violation, despite wide concerns that it could be used to justify curbs on free speech in Muslim countries.

The U.N. Human Rights Council adopted the non-binding text, proposed by Pakistan on behalf of Islamic states, with a vote of 23 states in favour and 11 against, with 13 abstentions.

Western governments and a broad alliance of activist groups have voiced dismay about the religious defamation text, which adds to recent efforts to broaden the concept of human rights to protect communities of believers rather than individuals.

Pakistan, speaking for the 56-nation Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), said a “delicate balance” had to be struck between freedom of expression and respect for religions.

The resolution said Muslim minorities had faced intolerance, discrimination and acts of violence since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, including laws and administrative procedures that stigmatise religious followers.

“Defamation of religious is a serious affront to human dignity leading to a restriction on the freedom of their adherents and incitement to religious violence,” the adopted text read, adding that “Islam is frequently and wrongly associated with human rights violations and terrorism.”
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The 47-member Human Rights Council has drawn criticism for reflecting mainly the interests of Islamic and African countries, which when voting together can control its agenda.

The European members of the council must be given credit for standing against this travesty:

Addressing the body, Germany said on behalf of the European Union that while instances of Islamophobia, Christianophobia, anti-Semitism and other forms of religious discrimination should be taken seriously, it was “problematic to reconcile the notion of defamation (of religion) with the concept of discrimination”.

“The European Union does not see the concept of defamation of religion as a valid one in a human rights discourse,” it said. “The European Union believes that a broader, more balanced and thoroughly rights-based text would be best suited to address the issues underlying this draft resolution.”

India and Canada also took to the floor of the Geneva-based Council to raise objections to the OIC text. Both said the text looked too narrowly at the discrimination issue.

As you’ll see below, despite its objections, India abstained from voting on the final text. Canada, however, came through:

“It is individuals who have rights, not religions,” Ottawa’s representative told the body. “Canada believes that to extend (the notion of) defamation beyond its proper scope would jeopardise the fundamental right to freedom of expression, which includes freedom of expression on religious subjects.”

CNS has a more detailed breakdown on the voting:

Countries voting in favor on Thursday included 15 of the 16 countries that are also members of the OIC — Burkina Faso alone went against the OIC line and abstained — along with OIC allies China, Russia, Cuba, South Africa, Angola, Nicaragua, Bolivia and the Philippines.

Canada and Chile joined nine European countries in voting against the motion.

Abstaining were Argentina, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Ghana, India, Japan, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mexico, South Korea, Uruguay, and Zambia.

The allies of the OIC are not all that surprising — Russia, China, Cuba, etc. are always glad to poke a sharp stick into the USA and Europe, and they voted for this monstrosity. But the fourteen abstentions are what really made the whole deal possible.

Why abstain? What makes India think it’s a good idea not to vote?

And Japan, South Korea, Argentina, Brazil — why don’t they want to stand up and give their opinions?

Anybody who thinks their country should be legally bound by this nonsense is a fool, but many Western countries are currently led by fools.

So this may yet make its way into our official jurisprudence.


Hat tip: Vlad Tepes.

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

This sucks.

Zenster said...

It’s official: today the U.N. Human Rights Council voted to adopt a resolution against the defamation of religions.

How splendid! All religions are protected against so-called hate speech. But wait, there's more!

Are all religions truly protected against hate speech, or just Islam? If this is so, that eliminates the "all" prefix, now doesn't it?

A United Nations forum on Thursday passed a resolution condemning “defamation of religion” as a human rights violation, despite wide concerns that it could be used to justify curbs on free speech in Muslim countries.

How could this be?!?

Is it because a huge number of Muslim majority nations have strict and punative laws against any criticism of their barbaric Islamic legal framework?

The U.N. Human Rights Council adopted the non-binding text, proposed by Pakistan on behalf of Islamic states, with a vote of 23 states in favour and 11 against, with 13 abstentions.

"[T]ext, proposed by Pakistan", [hack, cough, hack]. What's wrong with this picture, besides the fact that Pakistan is the poster child for completely dysfunctional Islamic states?

Western governments and a broad alliance of activist groups have voiced dismay ...

Which, for all intent and purposes, may well constitute hollering "go away" to those oncoming jet airliners that struck the World Trade Centers' Twin Towers.

Pakistan ... said a “delicate balance” had to be struck between freedom of expression and respect for religions.

Taking a page from these Terror Central experts, let's go with "freedom of expression", eh? While I'm sure that many might disagree with me, who's to argue against true freedom?

DON'T ANSWER THAT!!!

The resolution said Muslim minorities had faced intolerance, discrimination and acts of violence since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, including laws and administrative procedures that stigmatise religious followers.

And their problem is ... ?

Until Muslims are responsible for less than some 90% of global terrorism, they can take all charges of Islamophobic discrimination and blow it straight out their useless collective @ss.

PatriotUSA said...

The resolution said Muslim minorities had faced intolerance, discrimination and acts of violence since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, including laws and administrative procedures that stigmatise religious followers.


Until Muslims are responsible for less than some 90% of global terrorism, they can take all charges of Islamophobic discrimination and blow it straight out their useless collective @ss.



Shameful, is what this is, and disgusting. Any resolution that really ONLY protects islam is disgusting, just like Islam. To pass something like this would be like putting the fox right in the hen house.Islam, an ideaology that has been responsible for MORE
intolerance, dicrimination and violence than ANY other religion or ideaology, needs nothing to protect it.They refuse to take any responsibility for their 12,000 plus attacks and acts of terrorism
that Islam has committed since just 9/11. Islam and muslims are involved in almost all of the global conflicts being waged right now. Islam has not changed since it spawned out from the pits of hell.It will NEVER change or become moderate. The only response we should have have it to remove it from global society as time and history have proven that Islam is incompatible with true freedom, liberty, and western society.

The United Nations of Islam is a vile and corrupt organization that is totally impotent and useless. Except to Islamofacism.It should be cut off from all US funding and be given the boot out of the USA.
Sadly, this will never happen with the Islamosympathizer that is in the White House. What's next? Footbaths and five times a day prayer times from the oval office?
I would not be a bit surprised!

liuk said...
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liuk said...

This is just crazy, crazy, crazy.

The most ironic is how China and Cuba voted for this, when their official state communist ideology for decades is prosecution of many religious practices. Followers of Falun Gong would tell us their experiences, for sure.
It is clear how they decide how to vote not by the actual subject of statement, but according to who their "allies" are. Bleh.

At least we could be proud for once that Western leaders voted against it (Canada, Chile, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Slovakia, Slovenia, Switzerland, Ukraine, and United Kingdom.). Hopefully they will continue with this approach on Durban II and our governments won't pursue implementation into the national law systems.

Zenster said...

liuk: The most ironic is how China and Cuba voted for this, when their official state communist ideology for decades is prosecution of many religious practices.

There is absolutely nothing "ironic" about rabid communist regimes cozying up to a force entirely inimical to Western ideals and sheltering it against any deterrence.

Just like so many liberals, communists view Islam as the perfect tool with which to deconstruct White Male Christian Western Civilization.

The only difference is in how Muslims will scoot the liberals straight to their date with the chopping blocks while communists will simply annihilate Islam once it becomes too irksome.

This is the elephant in the parlor that no one, repeat NO ONE, is willing to recognize:

Islam WILL drive jihad to catastrophic levels. It is the nature of the Islamic beast. In fact, Islam prefers the most gruesome and violent outcomes possible in order to demoralize squeamish foes or contenders. It is for this reason that I continue to predict a Muslim holocaust. One look at how fecklessly Muslims kill each other tells all about just how blood soaked the inevitable final conflict will be.

All of these factors militate towards providing Islam with a stark foretaste of the Total War it is so busily precipitating but that is grist for my next essay.

PatriotUSA said...

Islam WILL drive jihad to catastrophic levels. It is the nature of the Islamic beast. In fact, Islam prefers the most gruesome and violent outcomes possible in order to demoralize squeamish foes or contenders. It is for this reason that I continue to predict a Muslim holocaust. One look at how fecklessly Muslims kill each other tells all about just how blood soaked the inevitable final conflict will be.


Zenster, Well put and I cannot wait for your next essay! islam is already and has been waging a continuous bloodbath since it crawled out of hell centuries ago. Nothing has changed within islam and how jihad and war are waged. All that has changed is islamofacism's march to obtain the deadliest and most weapons it can, WMD! Your noted difference between islam and communism sums it up pretty well. In a perfect world islam and communism would destroy each other, completely and totally.
Perhaps in the future the west will realize what is at stake and play the hand of cards that needs to be played for the west, and freedom to survive.

ɱØяñιηg$ʇðя ©™ said...

Muslims say: Freedom go to hell. I say: Islam go to hell.

Zenster said...

PatriotUSA: Nothing has changed within islam and how jihad and war are waged. All that has changed is islamofacism's march to obtain the deadliest and most weapons it can, WMD! Your noted difference between islam and communism sums it up pretty well. In a perfect world islam and communism would destroy each other, completely and totally.

As a regretful addenda to your frank assessment, I can only add that, in its current configuration, Islam and communism's unavoidable cross-cancellation would likely engulf the Western world in complete destruction, exactly as both sides intend for it.

Otherwise, having the two most murderous regimes in human history mutually annihilate each other would be supremely amusing.

No such luxury awaits us. Just as adamant patriots regarded the Soviet Union's dowfall to be of such great import, so do all sane people understand that Islam must be eradicated. The fact that so many Americans and Europeans are entirely immune to this profound truth stands as bleak testimony to what awaits all of us.

Snake Oil Baron said...

So where do I go to register complaints based on this resolution. For instance, there are some states which defame various religions by not allowing their Muslim citizens to convert to them. They say a person can not be allowed to go from a "superior" religion like Islam to an inferior one. Sounds like a pretty clear case of defamation to me. Even if such cases are not accepted by the Turtle Bay twerps it does not mean they should not be submitted. Repeatedly.

Debbie said...

You wait for Saudi Arabia or any of the individual countries who put forth the resolution to actually adopt it into their laws (which will only happen in Western countries), and then you request the ICC prosecute the King of Saudi Arabia under the new criticism of religion is a crime law.

PatriotUSA said...

Zenster wrote:
No such luxury awaits us. Just as adamant patriots regarded the Soviet Union's dowfall to be of such great import, so do all sane people understand that Islam must be eradicated. The fact that so many Americans and Europeans are entirely immune to this profound truth stands as bleak testimony to what awaits all of us.


Perhaps Zenster, perhaps. There are too many of my family that perished in the death camps of the nazi's for me to be still, silent or remain idle, against this curse of islam that is of the same stench of the nazi's. I will not be silent and if and when they come to get me, I will be ready. Until then, I will never give up hope. There is a light at the end of the tunnel. It is a shame that
not enough of us can see it. I pray and hope that will change.

Debbie said...

Patriot - I feel your pain. I wish more people would be able to link the Holocaust to what's happening today. There is a major disconnect.

liuk said...

Zenster: You are right, it is nothing ironic, it's pretty "rational". I just wanted to highlight it.
But about future of China. I really think there is nothing communist in their economic goals nowadays. I even came to conclusion that PRC is rightist dictatorship, at least in the most prosperous east Special Economic Zones, but they are spreading this development westward (Chongqinq). And at least in this regions the most wild capitalism is being pursued - no subsidies, no bailouts, no personal bankrupts. If you are done, you are done. There is nothing communist about this, there is no agenda about destroying a bourgeoisie or abolishing "capitalist surplus value". If they don't have most premeditated grandplan, I don't see what's communist on that. And with this progress, shift in politics will happen too, afaik. Big progress and forever dictatorship never were real friends. In the end, China is the most succesfull and still persistent ancient civilization, just few centuries ago they were still the best. Nowadays, after disastrous worst civil wars in history of mankind and after dark ages of Mao, they are regaining their supreme equilibrium. And with unexpendable help of the West...
About Islam and violence. Yes, they kill each other, but not everywhere, only in the nations and regions with civil unrest. I don't know if you were in some Muslim country, I was, in Morocco. And there is just nothing "deathly". It's great country with nice people. Problem is Muslim prior identification and collectiveness with their religion when they come to Europe. At home, Moroccons can't stand Algerians, Turks hate any Arabs, Persians opress Baluchis. But they come here, imam tell them they got to attend an anti-Israel demonstration and they go like puppets, all together. And I would say that this is real threat, not global ummah in general. That is just an easy to address, something like false assumption that any terrorist activity in Muslim country is done by group connected to Al-Qaeda, as our authorities keep repeating. But it is much more complicated and that's why it is hard for our soldiers to win in Afghanistan and FATA.

Zenster said...

PatriotUSA: There are too many of my family that perished in the death camps of the nazi's for me to be still, silent or remain idle, against this curse of islam that is of the same stench of the nazi's.

Likewise, my mother and her family survived the Nazi occupation of Denmark. Sadly, too many generations of Americans have grown up amidst peace, prosperity and security without having to make any sacrifices for it. Few people still understand that Freedom is not free.

Off topic: Permit me to note your Raiders avatar. Are you in the SF Bay Area? If so, please ask the Baron to forward a contact email to me and maybe we could get together sometime.

Profitsbeard said...

Why would one have any "respect" for a religion which prohibits freedom of expression?

Screw Islam.

An intolerant and tyrannical folly.

Zenster said...

liuk: But about future of China. I really think there is nothing communist in their economic goals nowadays.

Actually, I think that mainland China continues to perfectly embody historical communism in many important ways.

It is aggressive without any need to be.

It actively destabilizes world peace by supplying arms to terrorist factions.

It manufactures substandard products with total disregard for safety or environmental issues.

Workers are treated like draft animals or worse.

Finally, a bare few elites live in regal splendor while a huge majority toil away in vastly reduced circumstances.

China remains a very traditional hostile communist kleptocracy.

I do not have time to address all of the other misperceptions you have listed about China but they certainly have bail-outs and any success enjoyed by China's ancient civilization came the same way it does today; On the backs of millions of workers who have little hope of ever finding any respite from their incessant toil.

showbiz111 said...

The communists in Iran sided with the Ayatollah Khomeni and his revolution in 1979. Within six years Khomeni had wiped out all the communist leaders and many of their followers in Iran. Useful idiots they used to say. Commies think if they keep throwing others to the lions, then the lions won't get around to eating them, or will be grateful to the food handlers. History has another verdict.
As for this resolution it is a scandal that thirteen countries abstained from voting on it. Finally, except for libtards the biggest whiners in the world appear to be muslims, maybe that's why they get along famously.