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March 30, 2009
Already an old news, but still worrying…

Proscribing the defamation of religions, as the United Nations Human Rights Council would have the world do, is a chilling idea, in more than one sense. Islam in particular and religion in general would be treated as if beyond criticism. Really, it is a way to dress up the suppression of speech in human-rights garb.

The UN resolution has no legal force, but its symbolism is disturbing. Any Islamic government that legislates against an "insult to Islam," which can cover nearly anything, has just been given a pat on the back. Anyone anywhere who finds something objectionable - a depiction of the Prophet Mohammed in an editorial cartoon in Denmark, or a novel set in India, or a mention of the Prophet Mohammed in connection with a beauty pageant in Nigeria - has been handed a moral justification for protest. This, in a world in which such protests have often taken deadly forms.

The notion of defamation of religion is vague to the point of meaninglessness. What is its reach? The text of the Human Rights Council’s resolution says, "Islam is frequently and wrongly associated with human-rights violations and terrorism." That suggests a vast range of discussion is off-limits. The UN itself has overseen several reports outlining how Arab societies (both secular and religious) have fallen into decay. "Why do Arabs enjoy so little freedom?" the authors, 40 Arab intellectuals, asked. (If defamation of religion is wrong, is defamation of ethnic groups allowed? Is there now a hierarchy of protected groups?) Islam can co-exist with modernity, they say, implying that it does not do so now. Did the UN defame Islam, then?

There is a good deal of ferment in the Arab and Islamic world, of which those 40 intellectuals are a part. There is also a good deal of silent acquiescence in the face of extremism. At the request of Pakistan, which put the resolution forward on behalf of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, the Human Rights Council is pushing a fanatical notion, rather than encouraging the ferment.

Is it wrong to say, for instance, that creationism should give way to evolution in school curriculums? If it is wrong, how is society to progress? Of course, there are hateful people who will lie about religions - the Jews have faced them over many centuries (significantly, the World Jewish Congress and some Muslim and other religious groups oppose the Human Rights Council resolution) - but the price of dealing with the hateful should not be to stifle everyone else at the same time.

The notion that Islam should be protected has played out in Canada, with a human-rights complaint about the writings of journalist Mark Steyn on Muslims in Europe that were inflammatory but well within the bounds of free speech. Democracies do not, or at least should not, have their debates overseen by human-rights tribunals.

The discredited UN Human Rights Council is trying to drag the world backward. Instead of the Enlightenment, medievalism. It is disgraceful, though not surprising.

联合国通过“宗教诽谤”决议引争议

虽然逾50个国家超过180多个非政府组织联名签署请愿书抗议，联合国人权理事会本周四仍旧以23票支持、11票反对、13票弃权通过了一项关于“宗教诽谤”的决议。

此次请愿书的发起人宗教自由基金（Becket Fund for Religious Liberty）联名众多机构要求人权理事会能够拒绝“宗教诽谤”的决议。在该决议通过之后，该机构的代表L. Bennett Graham）发表一份声明说：“人权是为了保护人，而并非概念。人权理事会所通过的这个决议对所有信仰的人群来说都是一个灾难。”

亦有批评人士警告说，该项决议可能会被利用来令反亵渎（anti-blasphemy）合法化，使人权积极分子与宗教异见人士受到威迫；最终结果不仅不会 保护到宗教信徒（包括少数宗教）应得的权利，反而会令当权宗教利用此决议来打击其它人。比如在巴基斯坦，因国家反亵渎法的威胁，使基督徒经常活在恐惧中， 回教徒经常以污蔑穆罕默德的罪名随意指控基督徒，只要被抓，很少人可以全身而退，曾经有法官因宣判基督徒无罪而被暗杀。

总部设在英国的国际人权组织“世界基督教团结会”（Christian Solidarity Worldwide）的宣传主任Alexa Papadouris说：“不幸的是，这些决议试图去破坏《世界人权宣言》上的原则，而我们在去年12月份刚刚庆祝了《世界人权宣言》颁布60周年。这些 决议攻击了言论自由和宗教信仰自由，并且试图以无力的个人为代价来保护有权势的政府们。”

宗教自由基金代表L. Bennett Graham强调说：“我们在人权理事会不再是讨论人权的问题，我们现在讨论的是政治。这是一个耻辱。”

多种形式的“诽谤宗教”决议的发起者与支持者多是伊斯兰会议组织（Organization of the Islamic Conference ）的成员。伊斯兰会议于1999年首次在联合国人权理事会上采用“诽谤伊斯兰“一词，“诽谤宗教”此类词语方才引入；但连续几年国际社会都高声反对此类决 议。直到2005年，联合国大会才开始每年通过“诽谤宗教“决议。但到2008年，在“诽谤宗教“议案中，投反对与弃权票的首次超过了投支持票的一方。今 年，亦是如此。

“世界基督教团结会”宣传主任Alexa Papadouris呼吁，下月在日内瓦召开的德班反种族主义国际检讨大会上，各国政府们应当抵制“宗教诽谤”决议。

4月份，德班反种族主义国际检讨大会将会在日内瓦召开。在为了制定检讨大会最终成果文件草案而开展的协商工作中，尽管各国代表都能以一致同意的方式通过各 项决定，但成果文件草案中仍有一些措辞引发了争议。其中一个存在争议的问题是，一些伊斯兰国家提议在成果文件中加入旨在限制“诽谤宗教 ”（defamation of religions）的内容，但西方国家对此难以接受，认为这将对言论自由造成潜在的不良影响。

Sources / 来源:
globeandmail.com
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