THE WISCONSIN JEWISH CHRONICLE: New York (JTA) — A draft resolution that was passed Nov. 24 by a committee of the United Nations General Assembly threatens to silence criticism of religion.
The resolution, circulated by the Organization of the Islamic Conference, representing more than 50 Muslim nations, is perversely being advanced under the guise of protecting human rights.
In its current form, the resolution would declare defamation of religion to be a violation of international law. The resolution’s drafters hope to circumvent national constitutional protections for freedom of speech, including the United States’ First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, by superseding international law.
If the resolution is adopted, the effort to ban speech defamatory of religion will be a centerpiece of a coming U.N. conference against racism, the so-called Durban II meeting, to be held in Geneva next spring.
The resolution is the culmination of many years of quiet work by the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), which has set as a goal the criminalization of any “defamation of religion, especially Islam.”
By making “defamation of religion” a crime under international law, nations would be able to seek extradition and trial abroad of persons who make statements critical or offensive to one or all faiths anywhere.
This is not merely a hypothetical. A private group in Jordan (where private parties may initiate criminal prosecutions) is seeking extradition of the Danish cartoonist and publishers of the “Mohammad” cartoons to stand trial in Jordan for defaming Islam.
As a result, Denmark’s foreign minister has begun telling OIC members that if a ban on “defamation of religion” is part of the anti-racism agenda in Geneva, it and other European nations will not participate. >>> By Marc D. Stern | November 27, 2008
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