Crush Liberalism

UN: Respect Islam…oh, yeah, and other religions, too

The U.N. is more useless than a football bat.  From the Washington Times:
The Bush administration, European governments and religious rights organizations are mounting a new effort to defeat a General Assembly resolution that demands respect for Islam and other religions but has been used to justify persecution of religious minorities.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES SPEAKING THEIR MINDS: Pakistani Shi’ite Muslims shout anti-Taliban slogans during a protest Monday in Islamabad.

The resolution, called “Combating Defamation of Religion,” is sponsored by the 57-nation Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) and has been approved by the world body annually since 2005. It comes up for renewal this fall.

U.S. officials said they hope to persuade moderate Muslim nations – among them Senegal, Mali, Nigeria and Indonesia – to reject the measure, which lacks the force of law but has provided diplomatic cover for regimes that repress critical speech. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the topic.

Religious rights groups say other U.N. measures, including statements by the Human Rights Council in Geneva, replicate the language of the resolution.

“Before, it was one resolution with no impact and no implementation,” said Felice Gaer, chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, a bipartisan federal body that investigates abuses and proposes policies to advance “freedom of thought, conscience and religion.”

“Now we are seeing a clear attempt by OIC countries to mainstream the concept and insert it into just about every other topic they can,” Miss Gaer said. “They are turning freedom of expression into restriction of expression.”
…
Incidents cited include remarks last year about Islam by Pope Benedict XVI, the publication of cartoons in Danish newspapers that contained unflattering images of the prophet Muhammad and religious rulings issued against iconoclastic Muslim writers such as Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Salman Rushdie.

The most recent version of the anti-defamation resolution, passed by the world body in December, cites the erroneous connection of Islam to terrorism and “stresses the need to effectively combat defamation of all religions and incitement to religious hatred, against Islam and Muslims in particular.” …

Let’s get something straight: there is NO “the erroneous connection of Islam to terrorism”!  The connection is crystal freakin’ clear!  A majority of Muslims are not terrorists, but a majority of terrorists are Muslim fanatics.  Instead of confronting those who use Islam as a “reason” to perpetuate violence, it seems that the Muslim world would rather just shut the rest of us up.

I don’t know how to break it to those geniuses (genii?) at the United Nations, but we have this pesky thingy in America called a Constitution, which has an even peskier component called the First Amendment.  Give it a once-over and get back to us Americans when it makes sense, m’kay?  Thanks in advance.

Exit question: Notice that the UN resolution mentions Islam by name but does not mention the “other religions” by name?

September 3, 2008 - Posted by crushliberalism | political correctness, religion of peace, United Nations