TruthNews

Muslim States Seek to Criminalize "Defamation of Islam"

International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, 13 Mar 2009

Islamic states circulated a new resolution at the current session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Wednesday that seeks to criminalize "defamation of Islam" as a human rights violation.

The non-binding resolution, titled "Combating Defamation of Religions," would ban anything deemed insulting to Islamic sensitivities as a "serious affront to human dignity" and a blatant violation of religious freedom. Virtually assured of passage due to the dominance of Muslim countries on the UNHRC, the resolution would then likely become part of the declaration being prepared for the Durban II conference on racism in late April.

The proposal is "not really trying to protect individuals from harm," but rather attempting "to shield a set of beliefs from question or debate and to ban any discussion of Islam that may challenge state orthodoxies or offend Islamic sensibilities," insisted Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch in Geneva.

The motion, originally introduced by Pakistan, is scheduled for a March 26-27 vote. The passage of the submission is "a foregone conclusion," Neuer concluded, as key Western nations like the US have no seat in the Council.

The resolution makes no mention of human rights violations in Muslim countries, notably Iran's persecution of Baha'is, Saudi Arabia's banning of all religious practice aside from Islam, and the persecution of Christian communities in Egypt, Pakistan and Iraq.

Critics warn that if such resolutions are passed enough times, they become a norm of international law. The Organization of the Islamic Conference, numbering 56 countries, has been campaigning in UN forums since 1990 for special protections for the Islamic faith in international law that would ban blasphemy of Islam and condemn Islamophobia. Such provisions would, in effect, give legal sanction to domestic blasphemy laws in Muslim countries, a loosely defined crime that often carries such brutal punishment as beheading or amputation of limbs.