Wonderland or Not

I’d like to build the world a home
And fur­nish it with love
Grow apple trees and honey bees and snow-white turtle doves

While you were lamen­ting your shrin­king invest­ment port­fo­lio, dis­cus­sing whether Adam (Ame­ri­can Idol) looks bet­ter with or without eye liner and fin­ger­nail polish, and worr­ying about Obama’s ove­rex­po­sure on natio­nal tele­vi­sion, the Uni­ted Nations was once again making a moc­kery of them­sel­ves. The 47 mem­ber Human Rights Coun­cil pas­sed a non bin­ding reso­lu­tion that sug­gests coun­tries around the world seriously con­si­der pro­mo­ting tole­rance and unders­tan­ding bet­ween cul­tu­res, reli­gions and races. OMG.

I’d like to teach the world to sing
In per­fect har­mony
I’d like to hold it in my arms and keep it company

What’s so horri­ble about that you ask? Well, nothing on the sur­face. Beyond the crust howe­ver this reso­lu­tion, first intro­du­ced to the Com­mis­sion on Human Rights in 1999 by Pakis­tan on behalf of the Orga­ni­za­tion of Isla­mic Con­fe­rence under the agenda item on “racism, is the “Dear John” let­ter of reso­lu­tions. Even pretty deep into it (the wor­king reso­lu­tion pdf) it all sounds pretty “UN We are The Worl­dish”. You read along and feel like brea­king into a cho­rus of I’d Like To Teach The World To Sing. You’re saying “yes” inside your head, and then you come across the clincher, the “It’s not you, it’s me, I will always love you, I just can’t be with you”, of the reso­lu­tion. You rea­lize you’ve been duped. You read the sug­ges­tion that “media watch what they say and who they cri­ti­cize”. Then the most cer­tain, true intent is made clear as they say “even though ever­yone has the right to hold opi­nions, and free­dom of expres­sion is good, it might be wise to enact laws to shut up those who don’t know how to handle the spe­cial duties and res­pon­si­bi­li­ties that come with these rights”.

You might con­si­der this unim­por­tant, the West in gene­ral voted against, or abs­tai­ned from voting, and always has, as did India, and it won’t affect us any­way. Don’t be so sure. Jour­na­lists, and some of our fellow blog­gers, are get­ting jai­led at an inc­rea­singly alar­ming rate. We have to pay atten­tion to this. In a world where we are res­pon­si­ble in some way for huma­nity, where in some parts of Afgha­nis­tan girls are again being denied edu­ca­tion due to.… reli­gion, in a decade in which the Uni­ted Nations has agreed that women’s rights are human rights, where UNIFEM pro­mo­tes women’s empo­wer­ment, rights, and gen­der equa­lity glo­bally, and where the Sec­re­tary Gene­ral has spe­ci­fi­cally pled­ged to end vio­lence against women, this is giving per­mis­sion to make laws which sup­press and con­se­quently oppress. By sup­pres­sing the voi­ces, you sup­press the cause, be it liberty, jus­tice, or equa­lity. As sta­ted in some of the UN’s own mem­ber nation’s past analy­sis “defa­ma­tion of reli­gions,” as oppo­sed to the defa­ma­tion of per­sons, for­cibly requi­res the state to deter­mine which ideas are accep­ta­ble, as oppo­sed to which facts are true. A fun­da­men­tal rule of law pro­blem pre­sents itself in the notion of “defa­ma­tion of reli­gion”. Sti­fling legi­ti­mate cri­ti­cism or even research on prac­ti­ces and laws appea­ring to be in vio­la­tion of human rights.”

Those who vote con­ti­nually for this reso­lu­tion feel the rights of the orga­ni­za­tion, in this case reli­gion, and more spe­ci­fi­cally Islam, trump the rights of human beings. They see reli­gion as threa­te­ned by cri­ti­cism so they desig­nate free speech the cul­prit of the vio­lence, hatred, and racism, and in so doing set a pretty unsett­ling pic­ture of what could come for those living in nations who sup­port this resolution.

In the name of peace, love, and Allah of course.

For the Love of God, as they say.

Peace.

Pos­sibly of interest:

UN body OKs call to curb reli­gious cri­ti­cism
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Review of pro­gress and assess­ment of imple­men­ta­tion of the Dur­ban Dec­la­ra­tion and Pro­gramme of Action by all sta­kehol­ders at the natio­nal, regio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal levels-pdf
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UN rights coun­cil ses­sion ends in con­tro­versy
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UN Watch
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SHATTERING THE RED LINES: THE DURBAN II DRAFT DECLARATION
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<a href=‘http://wonderlandornot.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/becket.pdf”>Becket Fund for Reli­gious Liberty Issues Brief, June 2008