By Joseph Klein
Tuesday, February 21, 2006
The Islamic campaign against free speech continues to pick up steam. With the backing of the visiting High Representative of the European Union for Common Foreign and Security Policy, Mr. Javier Solana, and of a visiting Russian delegation, the Permanent Representatives of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) Member States convened at the OIC Headquarters in Jeddah on February 14, 2006 to approve the following five points (emphasis added):
Kofi annan is on board. Seeing no problem with using his own bully pulpit in matters such as the cartoon caricature controversy, he has endorsed the language prohibiting blasphemy or defamation of religions which the Organization of the Islamic Conference wants to add to the text of the new Human Rights Council resolution.
Somehow, annan has convinced himself with his own doublespeak that there is no contradiction between mandating what is acceptable to say or write on a particular subject and opposing censorship of the press. That should not be a surprise, since he continues to display his own animus toward reporters who dare to ask critical questions about the United Nations while having his spokesman maintain that "the United Nations respects the right of the press to ask questions". It has gotten so bad lately that the normally pliant UN Correspondents association sent a complaint to annan's press spokesman about a testy exchange between the Secretary-General and one UN correspondent on February 16. The correspondents stressed to the spokesman that all journalists should have the right to have their questions answered. In true UN doublespeak fashion, annan's spokesman denied what had really happened, saying only that the Secretary- General had been asked a question and simply chose to answer with a question of his own.
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It is best to judge for yourself. Here is the actual exchange on February 16 between annan and that reporter who was the object of annan's wrath:
Q: These rapporteurs are considered independent, they are called independent. How much do they represent you, considering that you have called to actually overhaul the mechanism which they are appointed by?
SG: Do answers to any of your questions make any difference to your paper? Next question.
Kofi cannot be permitted to paper over the broader issue of press censorship with the kind of UN doublespeak he has his spokesman spouting at the daily briefings at UN headquarters. If we were only talking about voluntary codes of responsible journalism, there would be no issue so long as reporters were truly free to decide whether or not to comply. We can agree that the publishers of the offensive cartoons were irresponsible and should have exercised better judgment. But as soon as we enter the realm of legal sanctions against unacceptable speech that are incorporated into an instrument of international law, we are talking about something else entirely. Such compulsion — no matter how attractively packaged - completely undermines the liberties of thought, belief and expression guaranteed by the United States Constitution.
Justice Samuel alito, who was just recently confirmed to sit on the U.S. Supreme Court, expressed the core First amendment value this way in an opinion that he wrote as an appellate judge dealing with the constitutionality of a ‘hate speech' code:
"There is of course no question that non-expressive, physically harassing conduct is entirely outside the ambit of the free speech clause. But there is also no question that the free speech clause protects a wide variety of speech that listeners may consider deeply offensive, including statements that impugn another's race or national origin or that denigrate religious beliefs. When laws against harassment attempt to regulate oral or written expression on such topics, however detestable the views expressed may be, we cannot turn a blind eye to the First amendment implication…This sort of content- or viewpoint-based restriction is ordinarily subject to the most exacting First amendment scrutiny."
We are at the cusp of a fundamental clash of values with the escalating demands that Islamists are incrementally advancing in the international arena. We respect the beliefs of all religions — including Islam - and protect the rights of those who peacefully adhere to those beliefs. We also protect the rights of those who wish to publicly express their personal disrespect for all religious beliefs or to criticize particular ones, so long as they confine their disrespect to peacefully expressed speech. We urge responsible speech, but we do not mandate it with the force of law. We can criticize those who use their freedoms irresponsibly and decide not to buy their products or services, but we cannot criminalize speech that we disagree with if we are to remain a free society. The line for legally impermissible behavior in our society is drawn against violent actions or intimidation as a way of forcing one's point of view on others.
Most Islamic legal systems draw this line differently. They mandate respect for Islam above all other values, including particularly over the freedom of critical thought. Now they want to export their legal system on this core issue to the rest of the world along with their oil. Even the representatives of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, who may spurn violence as the answer to settling disputes, use the fact of such violence to insist on respect for their own religion under penalty of law. However, they remain silent about the daily desecrations sanctioned by some Muslim governments and clerics against the symbols of non-Muslim "infidels".
The United Nations is being pulled inexorably toward the Islamic worldview. They appear to have the votes in the General assembly to push forward their agenda, where many member states who pay an infinitesimal fraction that the United States pays toward the UN's annual budget regularly band together to oppose the United States at virtually every turn. and the Islamists also have the help of enablers inside the UN bureaucracy, within some European countries, and among the "politically correct" crowd --- all of whom are too craven, too cynical or too naive to resist. But resist we must in order to protect the freedoms that we have fought for, even if we have to declare our independence from the United Nations and its entangling web of ‘international laws.'
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