**
New post on *Doctor Bulldog & Ronin*
<http://doctorbulldog.wordpress.com/author/doctorbulldog/> Tolerance of
the
Intolerant<http://doctorbulldog.wordpress.com/2011/12/30/tolerance-of-the-intolerant/>by
doctorbulldog <http://doctorbulldog.wordpress.com/author/doctorbulldog/>
*Better put your Senators' phone numbers on speed-dial:*
*Could You Be A Criminal? US Supports UN Anti-Free Speech Measure*
*Forbes<http://www.forbes.com/sites/abigailesman/2011/12/30/could-you-be-a-criminal-us-supports-un-anti-free-speech-measure/print/>
*
While you were out scavenging the Wal-Mart super sales or trying on
trinkets at Tiffany and Cartier, your government has been quietly wrapping
up a Christmas gift of its own: adoption of UN resolution 16/18. An
initiative of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (formerly
Organization of Islamic Conferences), the confederacy of 56 Islamic states,
Resolution 16/18 seeks to limit speech that is viewed as “discriminatory”
or which involves the “defamation of religion” – specifically that which
can be viewed as “incitement to imminent violence.”
Whatever that means.
Initially proposed in response to alleged discrimination against Muslims in
the aftermath of 9/11 and in an effort to clamp down on anti-Muslim attacks
in non-Muslim countries, Resolution 16/18 has been through a number of
revisions over the years in order to make it palatable to American
representatives concerned about U.S. Constitutional guarantees of free
speech. Previous versions of the Resolution, which sought to criminalize
blasphemous speech and the “defamation of religion,” were regularly
rejected by the American delegation and by the US State Department, which
insisted that limitations on speech – even speech deemed to be racist or
blasphemous – were at odds with the Constitution. But this latest version,
which includes the “incitement to imminent violence” phrase – that is,
which criminalizes speech which incites violence against others on the
basis of religion, race, or national origin – has succeeded in winning US
approval –despite the fact that it (indirectly) places limitations as well
on speech considered “blasphemous.”
What’s worse, the measure codifies into the UN agenda support for the very
notion democracies now wrestle with, and which threatens to destroy the
very fabric of our culture: tolerance of the intolerant, or rather, the
question of whether a tolerant society must also tolerate ways of life that
are intolerant – that oppress women, say, or advocate violence against
homosexuals, or force strangers to marry against their will. It is, in
fact, this very concept that the OIC has long pressured Western governments
to adopt in other ways, and that those supporting the adoption of Sharia
law in the west have emphasized. Yet if we fall into that trap – as it
appears we are – we will have lost the very heart of who we are.
Read more of this
post<http://doctorbulldog.wordpress.com/2011/12/30/tolerance-of-the-intolerant/#more-28852>
*doctorbulldog
<http://doctorbulldog.wordpress.com/author/doctorbulldog/>*| 30
December, 2011 at 1:29 pm | Categories: Abuse
of Power <http://doctorbulldog.wordpress.com/?cat=62866>,
censorship<http://doctorbulldog.wordpress.com/?cat=393>,
Freedom of Speech <http://doctorbulldog.wordpress.com/?cat=14676>, muslim
Intolerance <http://doctorbulldog.wordpress.com/?cat=729230>, Obama
Sucks<http://doctorbulldog.wordpress.com/?cat=5183334>,
politics <http://doctorbulldog.wordpress.com/?cat=398>,
Religion<http://doctorbulldog.wordpress.com/?cat=116>| URL:
http://wp.me/p1NPg-7vm
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