Soldat_Américain
10-25-2009, 01:07 PM
This is from the paper in my home town which my dad told me to look up and read. Hell, first the UN wants our guns...whatever but they want to take away Our Right of Free Speech...in regards to Islam.
Without A Prayer
United Nation's `Defamation of Religions' would undermine freedoms worldwide
By Dr. Carl Moeller
Posted: 10/24/2009 07:11:25 AM PDT
We in the United States have a robust tradition of free speech on any and every subject. Whatever the topic - politics, business, sports or philosophy - we take for granted our right to speak up and speak out, to grapple with ideas, to seek to persuade others and to agree to disagree.
Occasionally, feelings are hurt and sometimes citizens speak irresponsibly, but we consider this risk a small price to pay to safeguard the spirit of the First Amendment. The right to speak one's mind is essential to life in a free nation.
Many other regions of the world have no such tradition, of course, and people who speak their mind on subjects deemed taboo by either central governments or their local communities sometimes put their lives in jeopardy. Freedom of speech is enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the United Nations in 1948. When these rights are trampled, we have little power or influence to challenge injustices on distant shores.
Today, however, we have that opportunity, and the injustice we must challenge is in the heart of the United Nations itself.
Despite its purpose of providing a forum to promote peace and the rights of the oppressed, the United Nations is once again on the verge of introducing a resolution that goes against everything the world body supposedly stands for. A successful resolution would actually undermine the religious liberty and personal safety of Christians and members of other faiths.
The Defamation of Religions Resolution, introduced annually at the UN, seeks to silence words or actions that are deemed to be against a particular religion, and that religion is Islam. While the stated goal seems relatively innocuous - blocking defamation of people's deeply held religious beliefs - in practice the statement is used to silence those whose only crime is to believe in another faith, or no faith at all.
Those who would be tempted to endorse the resolution ought to know that the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC), an inter-governmental organization of 57 countries with majority or significant Muslim populations, has been the driving force behind it. And the OIC's goal is anything but peaceful.
In testimony before the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission last Wednesday, Leonard A. Leo, chair of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), called the resolution an attempt to "create a global blasphemy law."
Although proponents justify the "defamation of religion" concept as protecting religious practice and promoting tolerance, it really promotes intolerance and human rights violations of religious freedom and freedom of expression. These resolutions have empowered repressive governments and religious extremists to suppress and punish whatever they deem to be offensive or unacceptable speech about a particular favored religion or sect.
Open Doors USA, our organization that tracks the treatment of Christians around the world, has documented that many Christians living in Muslim-majority countries are already severely impacted by restrictive laws - especially those living under strict Sharia law.
From the right to worship freely to the ability to tell others about Jesus Christ, the Defamation of Religions Resolution (previously called the "Defamation of Islam" resolution) threatens to justify local laws that already restrict the freedom of Christians. Of course, Christians are far from the only religious minority under pressure in the Islamic world.
In fact, blasphemy laws in some countries have been used to justify actions that selectively curtail civil dissent, halt criticism of political structures and restrict the religious speech of minority faith communities, dissenting members of the majority faith, and persons of other religious faith, or no faith. Under these laws, criminal charges have been levied against individuals for defaming, denigrating, insulting, offending, disparaging and blaspheming Islam, often resulting in gross human rights violations.
In August, for example, Muslim extremists rampaged for several days through a Christian area in Gojra, Pakistan. The violence killed at least seven Christians, caused 19 injuries and left more than 100 houses looted and burned, according to Compass Direct News.
The rioting was touched off by an unsubstantiated rumor of "blasphemy" of the Quran. Some Muslims use blasphemy laws in Pakistan against Christians and other minorities in land and other disputes. Under these laws, no evidence is required to accuse and have someone arrested on a charge of blasphemy.
The persecution of Christians and other faith groups goes far beyond Pakistan, and their plight may worsen if the resolution is approved at the UN this year.
Policy experts at the USCIRF believe there is a real opportunity to defeat the resolution this year. Members of Congress and some nonprofit organizations are urging countries to join the U.S. and vote against the resolution this fall.
Open Doors USA is helping to lead the advocacy effort at the United Nations to prevent this non-binding resolution from passing. As part of its "Free to Believe" campaign, Open Doors is lobbying key countries to vote "no" on the resolution, organizing a petition drive to campaign against the resolution and speaking out in the media. (Go to the Internet site www.OpenDoorsUSA.org.)
While it is vital in our increasingly interconnected world that we all learn to speak respectfully to and about other faiths and their followers, the Defamation of Religions Resolution is an idea whose time should never have come.
Dr. Carl Moeller, president of Open Doors USA, is the former singles pastor at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest and works as an advocate for religious freedom around the globe.
Seriously when will they be ejected to Geneva or Brussels?
Without A Prayer
United Nation's `Defamation of Religions' would undermine freedoms worldwide
By Dr. Carl Moeller
Posted: 10/24/2009 07:11:25 AM PDT
We in the United States have a robust tradition of free speech on any and every subject. Whatever the topic - politics, business, sports or philosophy - we take for granted our right to speak up and speak out, to grapple with ideas, to seek to persuade others and to agree to disagree.
Occasionally, feelings are hurt and sometimes citizens speak irresponsibly, but we consider this risk a small price to pay to safeguard the spirit of the First Amendment. The right to speak one's mind is essential to life in a free nation.
Many other regions of the world have no such tradition, of course, and people who speak their mind on subjects deemed taboo by either central governments or their local communities sometimes put their lives in jeopardy. Freedom of speech is enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the United Nations in 1948. When these rights are trampled, we have little power or influence to challenge injustices on distant shores.
Today, however, we have that opportunity, and the injustice we must challenge is in the heart of the United Nations itself.
Despite its purpose of providing a forum to promote peace and the rights of the oppressed, the United Nations is once again on the verge of introducing a resolution that goes against everything the world body supposedly stands for. A successful resolution would actually undermine the religious liberty and personal safety of Christians and members of other faiths.
The Defamation of Religions Resolution, introduced annually at the UN, seeks to silence words or actions that are deemed to be against a particular religion, and that religion is Islam. While the stated goal seems relatively innocuous - blocking defamation of people's deeply held religious beliefs - in practice the statement is used to silence those whose only crime is to believe in another faith, or no faith at all.
Those who would be tempted to endorse the resolution ought to know that the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC), an inter-governmental organization of 57 countries with majority or significant Muslim populations, has been the driving force behind it. And the OIC's goal is anything but peaceful.
In testimony before the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission last Wednesday, Leonard A. Leo, chair of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), called the resolution an attempt to "create a global blasphemy law."
Although proponents justify the "defamation of religion" concept as protecting religious practice and promoting tolerance, it really promotes intolerance and human rights violations of religious freedom and freedom of expression. These resolutions have empowered repressive governments and religious extremists to suppress and punish whatever they deem to be offensive or unacceptable speech about a particular favored religion or sect.
Open Doors USA, our organization that tracks the treatment of Christians around the world, has documented that many Christians living in Muslim-majority countries are already severely impacted by restrictive laws - especially those living under strict Sharia law.
From the right to worship freely to the ability to tell others about Jesus Christ, the Defamation of Religions Resolution (previously called the "Defamation of Islam" resolution) threatens to justify local laws that already restrict the freedom of Christians. Of course, Christians are far from the only religious minority under pressure in the Islamic world.
In fact, blasphemy laws in some countries have been used to justify actions that selectively curtail civil dissent, halt criticism of political structures and restrict the religious speech of minority faith communities, dissenting members of the majority faith, and persons of other religious faith, or no faith. Under these laws, criminal charges have been levied against individuals for defaming, denigrating, insulting, offending, disparaging and blaspheming Islam, often resulting in gross human rights violations.
In August, for example, Muslim extremists rampaged for several days through a Christian area in Gojra, Pakistan. The violence killed at least seven Christians, caused 19 injuries and left more than 100 houses looted and burned, according to Compass Direct News.
The rioting was touched off by an unsubstantiated rumor of "blasphemy" of the Quran. Some Muslims use blasphemy laws in Pakistan against Christians and other minorities in land and other disputes. Under these laws, no evidence is required to accuse and have someone arrested on a charge of blasphemy.
The persecution of Christians and other faith groups goes far beyond Pakistan, and their plight may worsen if the resolution is approved at the UN this year.
Policy experts at the USCIRF believe there is a real opportunity to defeat the resolution this year. Members of Congress and some nonprofit organizations are urging countries to join the U.S. and vote against the resolution this fall.
Open Doors USA is helping to lead the advocacy effort at the United Nations to prevent this non-binding resolution from passing. As part of its "Free to Believe" campaign, Open Doors is lobbying key countries to vote "no" on the resolution, organizing a petition drive to campaign against the resolution and speaking out in the media. (Go to the Internet site www.OpenDoorsUSA.org.)
While it is vital in our increasingly interconnected world that we all learn to speak respectfully to and about other faiths and their followers, the Defamation of Religions Resolution is an idea whose time should never have come.
Dr. Carl Moeller, president of Open Doors USA, is the former singles pastor at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest and works as an advocate for religious freedom around the globe.
Seriously when will they be ejected to Geneva or Brussels?