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Islamic States Use UN to Stifle Free Speech - Globally

[Maclean's-Canada ] Luiza Ch. Savage - The Organization of the Islamic Conference has been leading a remarkably successful campaign through the UN to enshrine in international law prohibitions against "defamation of religions," particularly Islam. Their aim is to empower governments around the world to punish anyone who commits the "heinous act" of defaming Islam. The trend has rights advocates worried. "Defamation of religions" is not about protecting individual believers from damage caused by false statements - but rather about protecting a religion, or some interpretation of it, or the feelings of the followers. Religions by definition present competing claims on the truth, and one person's religious truth is easily another's apostasy. The subjective perception of insult is what matters, and what puts the whole approach on a collision course with the human rights regime. "Islamophobia is a problem. But this is not a practical solution, and it destabilizes the human rights agenda," said Angela Wu, international law director for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty in Washington. "The defamation of religions protects ideas rather than individuals, and makes the state the arbiter of which ideas are true. It requires the state to sort good and bad ideologies." By doing so, she said, the approach "violates the very foundations of the human rights tradition by protecting ideas rather than the individuals who hold ideas."
2008-07-31 01:00:00
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