UN panel passes a One religion-defamation resolution

from Hot Air

March 27, 2009

by Ed Morrissey

The UN Human Rights Council (oxymoron) has passed the resolution calling for an end to critcism of religion around the world. Actually, to be fair, that’s not entirely accurate. They want an end to criticism of one particular religion — and we all know which religion that will be:

The U.N.’s top human-rights body approved a proposal by Muslims nations Thursday urging passage of laws around the world to protect religion from Criticism.

The proposal put forward by Pakistan on behalf of Islamic countries — with the backing of Belarus and Venezuela — had drawn strong criticism from free-speech campaigners and liberal democracies.

A simple majority of 23 members of the 47-nation Human Rights Council voted in favor of the resolution. Eleven nations, mostly Western, opposed the resolution, and 13 countries abstained.

Opponents of the resolution included Canada, all European Union countries, Switzerland, Ukraine and Chile.

“It is individuals who have rights and not religions,” Canadian diplomat Terry Cormier said.

India, which normally votes along with the council’s majority of developing nations, abstained in protest at the fact that Islam was the only religion specifically named as deserving protection.

I wrote about this earlier in the month, so this resolution comes as no shock to Hot Air readers. Nor should its passage surprise anyone who has kept abreast of the UN’s efforts on “human rights”. The HRC and its predecessor have obsessed themselves with anti-Israel and pro-Islam initiatives, and have made a mockery of efforts to oppose racism at its Durban conferences.

Cormier provided one of the few voices of sanity at the HRC. As I noted on March 3rd:

Where does this stop? Will the UN next declare monarchy as a protected class of beliefs, about which criticism should be treated as a hate crime? Fascism? White supremacy? How about American exceptionalism? What about Hinduism, a polytheistic belief system that Islam frequently and bitterly criticizes? …

The notion that ideas and belief systems have “rights” goes against
every step towards liberty that mankind has taken. Individuals have
rights; ideas and belief systems have values and policies that should remain
open for debate, criticism, satire, and ridicule. Without that essential
freedom, people will fall under the thrall of whatever belief system or ideology
can exert the most force over them — a strategy practically designed by and for
the radical Islamist extremists to whom the UN panders in this declaration.

This also gives us another reason to oppose initiatives like Kyoto and Copenhagen. Along with endemic corruption and a chronic lack of accountability, the UN’s values are flat-out antithetical to America’s. We value individual rights and free speech, and the rights of people to speak trump the nonexistent right to be free from offense — as they must, if we value free speech at all. Pakistan and the other Islamic nations want to silence the opposition to Islam. They’re not interested in “human rights” in the sense that Westerners see them (as individually based).

The resolution carries little effect, but it reveals the wide chasm between the West and those who hate freedom and liberty. The latter won at the HRC, but they can only beat us here if we let them.

Click to read the article and comments

We don’t have the time to wait for a possible Islamic Enlightenment

First They Take Jerusalem — Then Everything Else

The West sleepwalks through its conflict with Islamic imperialism — and risks awaking to a profoundly altered world.

March 18, 2009
by David Solway

In the so-called “war on terror,” which is really a war of attrition between two competing civilizations, the dilemma that confronts us is that we don’t have the time to wait for a possible Islamic Enlightenment: we are not living in the 18th century but in the calamitously weaponized 21st. The crisis we are now facing does not allow for that species of adjournment we call diplomacy or the illusion of “dialogue” with an interlocutor who does not abide by its formative assumptions.

What the situation cries out for today are deeply educated and farsighted statesmen and courageous national leaders. Democracies are notoriously slow, fractured, and cumbersome in reacting to threatening events and are thus always at an initial disadvantage against their enemies — this is why intelligent and determined leaders are needed, those who are capable of foresight and not, like Maginot Line generals, only of hindsight.

What we have here is only the latest UFO to bedazzle large numbers of true believers: an Unidentified Flying Obama the electorate swears by. A man without a discernible core identity has been given a free pass by a majority of bedazzled Americans whose need for a messiah has induced them to embrace a state of excitable fatuity and comfortable ignorance.
Click to read the rest of the article

Our Freedom of Speech

There are so many things going on right now as a result of Obama being elected President, that it's actually scary. The Obama administration is using every devious method available to shove their agenda down our throats. This has already been confirmed in the first stimulus bill, and now again with the $400 billion dollar budget they're trying to send through with its 9,000 earmarks. They tried to sneak the Fairness Doctrine through and are now trying to sneak a similar bill through by not calling it the fairness doctrine. They tried re-instating the assault weapons ban again, but the initial backlash caused them to put it on the shelf for awhile. They're flooding the legislative process with all these bills, some of them containing attachments that shouldn't be there, in the hope that a few will make it through under the radar.

I followed the Obama team closely prior to the election and very closely since the election. I can say that until about the last week, I didn't think there was any chance of exposing Obama for who he really is and what he's trying to do to this country. The main stream media is so in bed with this guy that it's disgusting.

However, there is an awakening taking place. The American public is slowly opening their eyes. The news media is finally starting to publish some not so friendly articles about Obama. Except for the brave ones like Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, Laura Ingram, Mark Levin and a few others that I can't think of right now, the media was continually covering up for Obama.

I think what is happening now with some of the media is that they realize the Obama Administration is going into the toilet and they don't want to follow them there. They are now slowly backing away from Obama.

The point that I'm trying to make here is that without having our freedom of speech, it would almost be impossible to try and stop this sinking ship. Obama is doing everything he can in order to try and silence his critics. His attorney general holder - I didn't capitalize on purpose because he doesn't deserve the respect - called us all cowards when it came to discussing race in America. You basically can't say anything anymore without being accused of being a racist or of commiting a hate crime.

I think Obama and holder are going to use Islam to assist them in their effort to limit our freedom of speech. This is already taking place in the U.K.. The U.N. wants to enforce it. The Durbin II conference wants to make it an international crime to say anything derogatory about Islam.

The obvious thing is people generally shouldn't make offensive statements about others whether it's religion, politics or their sports teams. It's kind of the the golden rule thing. However, we know that's not realistic and that some people aren't going to abide by the golden rule. If they don't, so be it. They can say what they want. But, it has to apply across the board. The muslims are trying to make it a one way street in Europe. If you try to appease them by limiting our freedom of speech, they will end up destroying the American culture.

I will do whatever I can to make sure that never happens. The problem is we are limited in what we can do. I'm enjoying my freedom of speech by publishing this blog. It gives me the opportunity to write a few comments now and then, but also post articles that I believe are important regarding the current political situation.

To celebrate my freedom of speech, I'm posting the cartoon that got all the muslims in the world mad and caused the worldwide media outlets to go into a fetal postion with fear. Well, too bad. Just to expose the hypocrisy, I'm also posting another cartoon that shows what is a no-no against Islam, but perfectly acceptable when applied to Christianity.

I'll finish this blog a little later. There's someone at the front door...