Islamic countries push a global 'blasphemy' law

[Synnical]

http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/1027/p08s01-comv.html

Remember the Danish "Muhammad cartoons" that set off riots by offended Muslims more than three years ago? The debate pitted freedom of press and speech against notions of freedom from insult of one's religion. It rages still – but now in a forum with international legal implications.

For years, Islamic nations have succeeded in passing "blasphemy" resolutions at the United Nations (in the General Assembly and in its human rights body). The measures call on states to limit religiously offensive language or speech. No one wants their beliefs ridiculed, but the freedom to disagree over faith is what allows for the free practice of religion. The resolutions are misguided, but also only symbolic, because they're nonbinding.

Symbolism no longer satisfies the sponsor of these resolutions – the Organization of the Islamic Council. Under the leadership of Pakistan, the 57-nation OIC wants to give the religious antidefamation idea legal teeth by making it part of an international convention, or legally binding treaty. Members of the UN Human Rights Council are passionately debating that idea in Geneva this week.

The United States under Barack Obama recently joined the UNHRC, maligned for years as the mouthpiece for countries that are themselves flagrant human rights abusers. A "new" council formed in 2006. President Obama's hope is that as an engaged member, the US can further reform – and its own interests. This case will test his theory.

More at link

-Cindy

[NMMNG]

1. Fuck their religion and their "blasphemy laws".

[Tobin S.]

2. I could not agree more. n/t

[EvolveOrConvolve]

3. Didn't I remember Onager posting about the anti-semitic cartoons

in the newspapers and magazines in Egypt? Wouldn't those also then be considered illegal? Would they be able to police these effectively? Would they even make the attempt?

These people are fucking hypocrites. Dangerous hypocrites.

edited for spelling

[onager]

4. That was (mostly) in Saudi Arabia.

One of the most anti-semitic things I saw in Egypt was that fucking Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion. A lavish, coffee-table-sized version in Arabic. Wonder who subsidized it?

Also in Egypt I often saw very crude pamphlets for sale at the street-car stop newsstands. Some of those had cartoonish covers about Israel. Others had G.W. Bush on the cover, and still others Osama bin Laden.

The Egyptian mainstream media frequently criticized Israeli policies in the Gaza Strip, Lebannon, etc., but I never saw overt anti-semitism. That's not surprising since the Egyptian media is firmly under the thumb of the government. And that government is keenly aware of how much U.S. aid it receives for making nice with Israel.

Funny story about that. Some idiot in the Egyptian Parliament actually tried to pass a bill making it illegal to criticize "a foreign head of state."

It was pretty obvious who he meant, since G.W. Bush was having journalistic shoes thrown at him just about every day in the Egyptian papers.

One Egyptian editorial writer asked: "Foreign head of state? Does that mean we can no longer criticize Ehud Olmert?"

:rofl:

The stuff in Saudi Arabia really pissed me off because it appeared during Operation Desert Shield. When Western infidels were pouring into the Magic Kingdom to save the worthless asses of the Saudi royal family.

A very popular item was a huge poster of a soldier wearing an American flag on his uniform. He was also wearing a yarmulke and had the grossly caricatured features of a "hook-nosed Jew."

Goebbels could not have done any better.

[Odin2005]

5. Wow, that's sickening.

:puke:

[piratefish08]

6. FUCK ANYONE from ANY religion that suggests this bullshit.

Fuck the whole bloody lot of them.

[frebrd]

7. Fuck 'em and the imaginary friend they rode in on! eom

:(