From CNS News:
Islamic groups and governments are pressing ahead with a campaign to have international organizations take steps, including legal ones, to provide protection for their religion in the wake of the Mohammed cartoon controversy.
In a drive pursued largely away from the headlines, the Organization for the Islamic Conference (OIC) is promoting the issue at the United Nations and European Union, and having some success.
The executive council of the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) this month approved an agenda item entitled “respect for freedom of expression, sacred beliefs, values and religious and cultural symbols.”
This executive council, obviously has no respect for either language or thought because upholding freedom of expression must come at the expense of “sacred beliefs,” (however those are defined) or freedom of expression is meaningless.
Introduced by more than 30 Islamic states and the subject of considerable debate, the motion explicitly tied freedom of expression to ” respect for cultural diversity, religious beliefs and religious symbols.”
It also directed UNESCO’s director-general to carry out a “comprehensive study of all existing relevant international instruments.”
The motion did not refer directly to the furor over the publication of cartoons satirizing Mohammed, although an “explanatory note” offered by the OIC members did.
The publication of caricatures of the Prophet of Islam has caused deep and widespread offense and indignation within the Muslim community around the world,” the note said, adding that respect for religious symbols and beliefs and freedom of expression were “indissociable.”
“Given the importance of religion to peoples and to dignity and the way of life in different cultures, respect for different religious beliefs is essential to international peace and security and to the progress of human civilizations,” it said.
The Saudi-based OIC secretariat is spearheading the international campaign of response to what it has called “wanton provocation and reckless, blasphemous libertarianism cowering behind so-called freedom of the press.”…