Universal Declaration of Human Rights converted into Universal Declaration for the Protection of Islam from Criticism

At the website of the International Humanist and Ethical Union, Roy W. Brown, its former president, reports that the Organization of the Islamic Conference has effectively taken over the UN’s Human Rights Council. According to Brown, the OIC, with the support of allies including China, Russia and Cuba, has pushed through an amendment to a resolution on the freedom of expression aspect of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that will require the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression “to report on instances in which the abuse of the right of freedom of expression constitutes an act of racial or religious discrimination.”

As Brown explains, under these new rules, instead of defending freedom of expression, the UN will be policing it, in order to suppress the expression of negative views about Islam.

In pursuing this objective, the Muslim nations are simply putting in place the standards contained in the Declaration of Human Rights in Islam, signed by 54 Islamic nations in 1990 in Cairo as an Islamic alternative to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Declaration of Human Rights in Islam states that God has made the Islamic umma or community the “best nation” and has given it the role guiding humanity. To quote from my 2004 FrontPage Magazine article, “The Centrality of Jihad in Islam” (all italics have been added):

The Cairo Declaration, in pursuing its aim of finessing the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, states principles that are common to all civilization, but then qualifies each of those principles in terms of the Shari’ah, the strict law that governs Islamic societies. Thus it affirms “[man’s] freedom and right to a dignified life in accordance with the Islamic Shari’ah.” It says the laws of Islam are “binding divine commandments … and that no one as a matter of principle has the right to suspend them in whole or in part or violate or ignore [them] …” Further, the Declaration says that “it is prohibited to take away life except for a Shari’ah prescribed reason.” It says Shari’ah must rule supreme in matters of criminal law as well: “There shall be no crime or punishment except as provided for in the Shari’ah.”

Freedom of speech is allowed, but—once again—there’s a catch: “Everyone shall have the right to express his opinion freely in such manner as would not be contrary to the principles of the Shari’ah.” The only values that can be spoken or advocated are those of Islam: “Everyone shall have the right to advocate what is right, and propagate what is good, and warn against what is wrong and evil according to the norms of Islamic Shari’ah.” Nothing critical can be said about Islam: “Information is a vital necessity to Society. It may not be exploited or misused in such a way as may violate sanctities and the dignity of Prophets, undermine moral and ethical values or disintegrate, corrupt or harm Society or weaken its faith.”

Thus in changing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights from an instrument to protect freedom of expression into an instrument to prevent the “abuse” or “misuse” of freedom of expression in “acts of racial or religious discrimination,” a phrase plainly aimed at stifling criticism of Islam, the Islamic members of the Human Rights Council are doing exactly what the Declaration of of Human Rights in Islam does: claiming to affirm universally shared principles such as the right of expression, but then subjecting these principles to the norms of sharia law—one of the chief of which is that criticism of Islam is not allowed.

The lesson here goes to the fatal flaw at the heart of modern liberalism: If you create a global organization of nations based on the equality of all religions and nations, including the Islamic religion and the Muslim nations, and if the ultimate aim of this organization, stated clearly at the time its founding in the 1940s, is global government, then you shouldn’t be surprised when the Muslim nations which have been given equal membership in this global organization take it over and turn it into an Islamocentric organization supporting the imposition of sharia law on the whole world, the first step of which is the prohibition of criticism of Islam.

Hey liberals! Hey Humanists! If you don’t want to be Islamized, don’t treat Muslims as your equals!

Posted by Lawrence Auster at April 04, 2008 09:40 AM | Send