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UN Attacks Free Speech
newsblaze writes "The UN Human Rights Council assaulted free expression today, in a 23-11 vote that urges member states to adopt laws outlawing criticism of religions. The proposal came to the UN from Pakistan on behalf of the Organization for the Islamic Conference. There were 13 abstentions. South Korea, Japan, India, Mexico and Brazil, all strong democracies, allowed this to pass by abrogating their responsibility. While the resolution doesn't mention the online world, where does this subject get mentioned most, if not online?" The coverage is from NewsBlaze, which says its mission is to carry important news that other media are not paying attention to. There does not seem to be any other coverage of this vote.
Update: 03/29 00:48 GMT by KD : Reader kshade wrote in: "Actually this is covered by conventional media, even FOX news (Google News links). The absentees weren't there because they boycotted the proposal."
Update: 03/29 00:48 GMT by KD : Reader kshade wrote in: "Actually this is covered by conventional media, even FOX news (Google News links). The absentees weren't there because they boycotted the proposal."
The international community does something incredibly stupid and for once you're happy with the USA's general willingness to thumb its nose at the UN (As opposed to normally facepalming over it). Any law like this in the US would spectacularly crash+burn in the Supreme Court.
The UN is a great idea, but until someone steps up to send their troops into harm's way to stop injustices, it's a toothless debating society. No one particularly cares to send their men to die for someone else, so it never happens. A UN military might help, but do you really want people like Mugabe or Ahmadinejad having a say in what it does?
Quoth the resolution:
"Defamation of religious is a serious affront to human dignity leading to a restriction on the freedom of their adherents and incitement to religious violence," the adopted text read, adding that "Islam is frequently and wrongly associated with human rights violations and terrorism."
Restriction of freedom of speech and religion is a serious affront to human dignity leading to violence.
In other news, as I've been saying for years now, religion breeds terrorism. Being a peaceful, tolerant religious person doesn't negate that, or change it. And ignoring that fact simply lets it run rampant. Making laws to let religious intolerance run rampant is equivalent to committing violence in the name of religion.
Countries have defamation laws against individuals - i.e., false claims that cause harm to a person.
What is meant by defamation of a religion? And what is so special about religion that it needs a resolution of its own - why not just say that countries should have defamation laws, if that's what they really meant?
Reading about the resolution more closely, it seems they're more concerned with stereotyping and profiling of religious people such as Muslims (e.g., as a result of 9/11), which I agree is a bad thing - but this isn't about defamation laws in the usual sense, and critics are worried that it will cover criticism of religion. Saying "it covers defamation, not criticism" doesn't make sense, since defamation is only defined when it comes to saying false things about a person.
which all civilised countries have outlawed anyway
I know of no countries which have laws against "defaming" entities or beliefs such as "religions".
With almost 200 members, practically every country in the world, what else could it be but fools? That's all the world has to offer itself.
My country is represented by people most of us don't want to. I don't even think I need to name it to make it true.
I didn't say I believed that statement. However, my point was that religions should not be sacred*. The law currently discriminates on personal beliefs, depending on whether they are religious or not. If you're not ascribing your beliefs to a religion, you've got a lot less rights. If someone turned up to a job interview saying that voices in his head told him he was right for the job, employers would run a mile. That is, as long as it was not religiously inspired : George W Bush claimed that god chose him, and he got a decent job.
is that they treat all nations with relatively equal standing (except the members of the security council).
Only when they only admit freedom-based societies as voting members will it be a body that can work for actual good. Fear-based societies, who mistreat their own people, have no business telling other countries how to treat their people.
What's the difference between the two? If a citizen of a country can stand in what amounts to the town square and criticize his/her government without fear of reprisal, it's a freedom-based society. If not, it's fear-based.
I have never told a parent not to teach their child religion (nor would I ever dream of doing so), I simply wish that we didn't have this societal roadblock to worry about. As for school, religion has no place in the education system. Your education should consist of learning facts about life, working and skills that will help you later in life. Making a child a good person should never be up to a teacher, that is the parent's job!
When I have kids, I am definitely NOT going to bring them up with any religious view. If your child needs to fear a horrible fire-filled afterlife in order to make good decisions in life, then I fear for that child's future. Being a good person should have NOTHING to do with religion, and everything to do with examples set forth by their role models.
I believe very strongly that religion is (always has been, always will be) a scape-goat. "Why does the sun go up and down?" can be answered scientifically (we go around it), or religiously "some guy in a chariot pulls it around." The same goes for Ethics "Why can't I hit Billy?" can be answered simply as "You will go to hell if you are bad" or through and actual heart-to-heart talk with your kid about how such things make people feel and making them actual nice people.
I have always laughed at the term "God fearing Christian" because it implies that the only reason they are good is because they fear retribution.
Sorry for the rant, but I feel insulted every time someone thinks that the belief of their unproven gods are more important than the factual education of a child!
We are just witnessing the end of usefulness of what we consider ideals like freedom of expression. For the ruling class they were simply propaganda to push for a globalized and media controlled world.
Finnish politician Jussi Halla-aho was indicted for racism and blasphemy (!) on Friday. On Saturday, his party refused to include him in an upcoming election.
He has been the target of a smear campaign due to his opinion that the current immigration policy is wasteful and attracts the wrong kind of immigrants. His only fault is that he started as a blogger and was thus using too colorful language in the beginning, but the mainstream media has been quoting him out of context so much I've lost all faith in them.
Currently, they are reporting that he called Muslims pedophiles and Somalis genetically inclined to be thieves. This is what he is being charged for, but it is not what he said. The blog post in question was about free speech, and he used those two statements as examples of offensive speech. Apparently even that is now illegal. What's worse is that his post was also based on someone else calling Finns genetically inclined to be drunken murderers, to which apparently only he took offense.
On top of that, Muhammed actually did marry a child according to Muslims themselves, and Somalis commit a completely disproportionate number of crimes in Finland. How one should interpret those facts is of course up for debate, but even if Halla-aho actually believed in the offensive statements, he should be allowed to say so.
Does the the thought of organized religion fill you not just with anger, but with sincere disgust akin to physical sickness?
I've tried a few times now to read the Bible. I think it is something every good skeptic / freethinker / humanist / atheist / etc... should do. Its important that we understand the document followed by the majority of people who have such a large amount of power over our lives. The only problem is, I get physically ill every time I try to read it. Not because I'm angry, but because I am emotionally and physically disgusted when I think of the sheer volume of people who base their lives, and moral fiber, on such a disturbing piece of literature.
I think of the number of people who seem to ignore the multitude of morally troubling, disturbing, often contradictory rules and events portrayed in the Bible that, in effect, shows "God" is not the nice and moral creator the religious would have you believe. I am nauseated that people would willingly follow a being who is often shown as doing, or making his followers do, things that any sane individual would find morally reprehensible.
That being said, I have been trying to read it. I can get a few pages farther each time without feeling like I want to deposit my lunch all over the floor. But it still sickens me that people would willingly believe, and devote their lives to, the moral guidelines and divine behaviors as shown in the Bible.