By Patrick Goodenough, CNS News
- Islamic Bloc Says It Faces ‘Smear Campaign’ Over Religious ‘Defamation’ Push
- Islamic Group Backs Tehran, Slams Foreign ‘Interference’
(CNSNews.com) – An Islamic-led campaign against religious “defamation” has taken another blow the United Nations, where support among member states has dropped to a new low amid escalating concerns that defamation resolutions endanger non-Muslims in Islamic societies and harm freedom of expression.
While much of the world’s attention was focused on Copenhagen late last week, the U.N. General Assembly passed a range of human rights-related resolutions. For critics of the world body and its Human Rights Council, the results were mixed.
The latest in a string of religious defamation resolutions considered by the General Assembly and human rights bodies over the past decade saw more countries than ever oppose the measure.
The resolution passed by 80 votes to 61 against, with 42 countries abstaining. The result is the worst ever for the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) member states and their allies, many of them not free democracies. It marks a continuing decline since 2007, when in the wake of the Mohammed newspaper cartoon furor a similar resolution passed by a vote of 108-51, with 25 abstentions.
Not only has the number of countries opposing the move climbed (see graph), but several member states in the developing world have moved from supporting the resolutions to abstaining.
Ten countries in Latin America and the Asia-Pacific moved from abstaining in 2008 to opposing the OIC resolution this year – Chile, Mexico, Uruguay, Panama, St. Lucia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor, Vanuatu, Nauru and Tonga.
Another five states which supported the resolution last year abstained this time – Honduras, Jamaica, Bahamas, Antigua and Barbuda and Lesotho.
Moving in the other direction, Liberia, Cape Verde and Belize abstained this year, having opposed the OIC resolution in 2008; and Congo moved from abstaining last year, to supporting the resolution this time.
The OIC argues that Islam and its teachings, symbols and prophetic figures are being denigrated by non-Muslims as a result of ignorance, fear and prejudice.
But critics charge that the OIC is trying to shield Islam, Islamic practices and clerics from legitimate examination, noting that it is in some Islamic countries themselves that non-Muslim beliefs and activities are proscribed.
The drive to have defamation of religion outlawed has triggered a growing counter-campaign by freedom of expression groups, humanist organizations, and advocates for the rights of Christians and other non-Muslim minorities in the Islamic world, including coverts from Islam who are considered “apostates.”
Although the resolutions are non-binding, they are taking place in conjunction with a separate OIC-led push to have an existing, legally-binding anti-racism treaty, the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), amended to cover speech deemed as religiously defamatory.
In a letter written to member states ahead of the vote, Angela Wu, international law director of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty – a leading opponent of the resolutions – argued that the measures “provide international support for domestic blasphemy laws that have been used by oppressive regimes to silence, rather than protect, vulnerable minorities and dissenters.”
Wu contested the very concept of religious defamation, saying the human rights law systems is meant to protect individuals, not ideas or religions.
News in brief from the eye-on-the world blogspot:
Update on missing Lockerbie bomber
That MF is a millionaire:
(Times Online) The Lockerbie bomber had £1.8m in a Swiss bank account when he was convicted eight years ago, it has been revealed. More…
35% of Egyptians and Saudis feel “duty” to support armed jihad around the world
WASHINGTON, Dec. 18 (UPI) — More than 35 percent of Egyptians and Saudis interviewed in a recent survey considered it their duty to back regional mujahedin financially, a scholar notes. More…
That’s nice, especially in light of Obama’s kissing up to Islam in his Cairo speech in which he said that “throughout history, Islam has demonstrated through words and deeds the possibilities of religious tolerance and racial equality.”
Caught on TV terrorist: “I was framed”
Despite the fact that he was not only caught red handed in the middle of his Allah inspired murderous spree and was also caught on TV, Mohammad Qasab in court has retracted a confession that he took part, saying he had been forced by the police to confess after being repeatedly beaten up. He said he was not the man seen in pictures wielding an assault rifle during the attacks.
Mad Cow fights to save Mohammedan who ran her over
(UK) In the English city of Derby, 19-year-old Stacey Stubley pleaded in court for the judge not to jail her ex boyfriend who, in an episode totally out of character of his obsessive behavior towards his ex girlfriend, ran her over in his car putting her in a hospital bed for over a fortnight.
In court she pleaded with the judge not to jail Asah Shah and stated that the police statement of violence, intimidation, controlling behaviour she made against Shah from her hospital bed cannot be relied upon. Stupid Cow fights ….More>>
US “Outreach” Madness:
Relying on the Muslim Brotherhood to fight jihad:
CAIR Warns Not To Prosecute 5 American Jihadis: “FBI walks tightrope in outreach to Muslims”
“Charging them and throwing them in jail is not the solution,” said Nihad Awad, national head of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which approached the FBI on behalf of the families. “The government has to show some appreciation for the actions of the parents and the community. That will encourage other families to come forward.” More from WaPo
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* OIC Slams ‘Demonic’ Portrayal of Islam
Satanists slam ‘demonic’ portrayal of the devil.