OIC seeks international censorship
The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) is drawing up plans (via) to demand legal redress from nations, like Denmark, that allow freedom of speech.
The new charter, drafted at a meeting in Dakar commits the OIC “to protect and defend the true image of Islam” and “to combat the defamation of Islam.” The report urges the creation of a “legal instrument” to crack down on defamation of Islam, although the nature of such a “legal instrument” has not been spelled out.
The International Humanist and Ethical Union in Geneva released a statement accusing the Islamic states of attempting to limit freedom of expression and of attempting to misuse the U.N.
Human Rights Watch said in a statement that objectionable depictions of the Prophet Muhammad do not “give them the right under international human rights law to insist that others abide by their views.”
David Thompson gets to the heart of the matter:
[P]erhaps we should peel away the rhetoric of victimhood, used so indecently, and look at what’s actually being demanded here: A right not to hear that one is being irrational, dishonest or mortifyingly stupid, regardless of just how irrational, dishonest or mortifyingly stupid one actually is. That’s a license of no small magnitude, and one that a person of good faith would neither grant nor desire.
Thursday 20 Mar 2008 | Paul | World
[...] threat to international free speech Regular visitors to this blog will (I hope) be aware of attempts by the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) to enshrine a special status for Islam into [...]