UN anti-blasphemy measures have sinister goals, observers say

Boycott the UN, it is useless, corrupt, ineffective and infested with Transnational Socialists -TransNazis - In a perverse alliance with IslamoFascists, despots, terror regimes and dictatorships - The UN and the UNHRC is an insult to human rights and freedom.

The latest stunt is yet another reason to abolish the UN altogether.

From Euronews.

Islamic countries Monday won United Nations backing for an anti-blasphemy measure Canada and other Western critics say risks being used to limit freedom of speech.

Combating Defamation of Religions passed 85-50 with 42 abstentions in a key UN General Assembly committee, and will enter into the international record after an expected rubber stamp by the plenary later in the year.

But while the draft's sponsors say it and earlier similar measures are aimed at preventing violence against worshippers regardless of religion, religious tolerance advocates warn the resolutions are being accumulated for a more sinister goal.

It provides international cover for domestic anti-blasphemy laws, and there are a number of people who are in prison today because they have been accused of committing blasphemy,

said Bennett Graham, international program director with the Becket Fund, a think tank aimed at promoting religious liberty.

Those arrests are made legitimate by the UN body's (effective) stamp of approval.

Passage of the resolution is part of a 10-year action plan the 57-state Organization of Islamic Conference launched in 2005 to ensure "renaissance" of the "Muslim Ummah" or community.

While the current resolution is non-binding, Pakistan's Ambassador Masood Khan reminded the UN's Human Rights Council this year that the OIC ultimately seeks a "new instrument or convention" on the issue. Such a measure would impose its terms on signatory states.

Each time the resolution comes up, we get a measure of where the world is on this issue, and we see that the campaign has been ramped up,

said Hillel Neuer, executive director of the Geneva-based monitoring group UN Watch. (...)

UN, Saudis Conspire to Stifle Free Speech

From Euronews/IslamistWatch - As if the endless tales of corruption, ineptitude, and financial waste were not enough to sully one's view of the United Nations, here is another reason to look askance at Turtle Bay: the organization is pushing a global blasphemy law designed to thwart criticism of the Islamic faith:

United Nations General Assembly President Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann said on Tuesday [November 11] that the world body should ban defamation of all religions and disagreed that such a move would impinge upon freedom of speech.

"Yes, I believe that defamation of religion should be banned," he said in response to a question at a press conference to highlight the interfaith conference at the UN headquarters. No one should try to defame Islam or any other religion, he said, adding: "We should respect all religions."

President d'Escoto, a former Sandinista foreign minister and recipient of the International Lenin Peace Prize, was speaking prior to the UN's Culture of Peace Conference, held on November 12 and 13 at the behest of Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah. As the Middle East director of Human Rights Watch noted, "There is no religious freedom in Saudi Arabia, yet the kingdom asks the world to listen to its message of religious tolerance."

The meeting intended to build on a Saudi-led forum in Madrid earlier this year that issued a declaration touting "respect for religions." That sounds pleasant enough. Yet there is a thinly veiled agenda at work here: "a global law to punish blasphemy — a campaign championed by the 56-member Organization of Islamic Conference that puts the rights of religions ahead of individual liberties." Indeed, the details of last week's UN get-together are maddening:

Consider one key draft resolution at the event. Introduced jointly by the Philippines and Pakistan, it openly seeks to limit press freedoms. Sure, as read by Philippine President Gloria Arroyo, the language pays lip service to the notion of freedom of expression.

But the document then goes on to emphasize the "special duties and responsibilities necessary for the respect of the rights or reputations of others, protection of national security or of public order, or of public health and morals."

Translation: Don't even think of publishing those Danish cartoons or anything even close to them. And forget about questioning authorities in places like, say, Riyadh.

Of course, this is just the latest attempt to silence critics of radical Islam. Proposed blasphemy laws will fail to win much support from Americans or Europeans, but they underscore the agenda that Islamists are already enacting through politically correct appeals and soft intimidation.

Culture of peace? This is the culture of censorship and the West should have none of it.