Comments | potlan: That UN thing.

potlan

That UN thing.

Mar 29, 2009 07:25

So the UN passed a resolution that conflates "defamation of religion" with human rights abuses. This was a specific bid by Islamic countries to curtail Islamophobia (which is abhorrent, I mean I see the demonization of Muslims when I turn on the news, when I sit through movie previews, although I like to TRY to avoid things that are underhandedly ( Read more... )

Comments 10

kuniopt March 29 2009, 12:22:58 UTC

you are missing a " somewhere there.

potlan March 29 2009, 15:04:48 UTC

Fixed.

balinares March 29 2009, 18:58:42 UTC

Is there even the remotest chance this will make it past the Security Council? >O.o

nessthanthree March 29 2009, 19:35:36 UTC

As a young atheist, I never understood why secular humanism had to exist.

Lately I've kind of become political and augh, yeah, the only way to get treated as an actual player in this game is to build a church.

twilightspeaks March 29 2009, 20:02:57 UTC

I personally am against defamation (vilification) of people based on their beliefs (though I'd be inclusive, as I would be against defaming atheist or secular folk as well). Not saying that there isn't a problem with this particular resolution, but I don't see a problem in the general concept of protecting people from defamation ( ... )

potlan March 30 2009, 00:26:35 UTC

I'm thinking the same thing. I don't doubt their intentions in passing this, I'm more afraid of what it could become under pressure of certain extremist authorities. It certainly needs work, and should NOT have passed as-is.

twilightspeaks March 30 2009, 00:28:08 UTC

I think my point is that if we waited for everything to be perfect and all-inclusive to be passed, we'd never make any progress at all.

potlan March 30 2009, 00:48:28 UTC

I'm not disputing that! I just think the specific verbiage is worrying. Not because of who it's coming from, or the motivations behind the creation of the resolution. I think those concerns could be addressed in a much more direct and specific manner. My impression is that it was specifically crafted to be indistinct, which has precedence in the bills in the US that are trying to get creationism taught in science classroom by disguising it as an academic freedom issue.

I'm not denying that Islamophobia has infected the West, but that doesn't change the fact that this resolution has serious problems, up to and including the free speech barrier it puts on secular people within the Islamic world and without.

Thread 6