Free Speech = Non-Human Right
Tragicomic irony as the United Nations Human Rights Commission urges laws banning free speech. You guessed it … it’s a Motoons thing, pushed by Pakistan and other Muslim nations, horrified that the publication of a cartoon in Denmark forced thousands of Muslims to burn cars, Danish flags and consular buildings and in a couple of cases, to kill each other.
GENEVA (AP) — The U.N.’s top human-rights body approved a proposal by Muslims nations Thursday urging passage of laws around the world to protect religion from criticism.
The proposal put forward by Pakistan on behalf of Islamic countries — with the backing of Belarus and Venezuela — had drawn strong criticism from free-speech campaigners and liberal democracies.
Free speech, apparently no longer a human right. OK, that’s the tragic/ironic part.
The resolution urges states to provide “protection against acts of hatred, discrimination, intimidation and coercion resulting from defamation of religions and incitement to religious hatred in general.”
Wait a minute. The “hatred, discrimination, intimidation and coercion” was pretty much all incited by mullahs and exercised by rabid Muslim mobs, from whom cars, buildings, flags, Danish dairy products and sometimes other Muslims needed protection.
And there’s the comic part. It seems to have gone over the AP’s head, but it sounds like UNHRC has just called for laws enabling the roundup of troublemaking mullahs, like the ones that went on a Middle East roadtrip with their Motoon PowerPoint presentation, as well as other rabble rousers throughout Europe and the Middle East who fanned the flames.
“Defamation of religions is the cause that leads to incitement to hatred, discrimination and violence toward their followers,” Pakistan’s ambassador Zamir Akram said.
Not exactly. Case history suggests “by their followers.” AP respectfully gives Akram a pass on that. Maybe it’s a language problem.
“It is important to deal with the cause, rather than with the effects alone,” he said.
Got it, Zamir. If you say so. Go after the mullahs who have defamed religion by using it as an excuse for violence. Rounding up everyone who is offended and made violent by the exercise of free speech sounds a little extreme, but in some cases I could see it working.
The resolution is pretty specific about which religion is now out-of-bounds, by the way.
“Islam is frequently and wrongly associated with human rights violations and terrorism,” the resolution said.
Hey, UNHRC, that’s “man-caused disasterism,” if you don’t mind.
AP, to its credit, goes on to hurtfully, incitefully note that the UNHRC, a creature of the Un General Assembly, is loaded up with Muslim nations and assorted dictatorships and wannabe dictatorships. The Bush admin washed its hands of it, while the Obama admin is tentatively back in the door on “observer status” and finding it to be a ”major disappointment.” Not sure what they expected.
Topics: Islam, free speech
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 9:27 pm Comments (3) on Thursday, March 26, 2009
3 Responses to “Free Speech = Non-Human Right”
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March 26th, 2009 at 11:06 pm
Why are the democratic nations still dealing with the UN?
March 27th, 2009 at 2:08 pm
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March 28th, 2009 at 7:02 pm
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