Mick Hartley

From the NSS website:

The National Secular Society, together with the International Humanist and Ethical Union, has been working over the past year to try to raise the alarm about the concerted efforts by Islamic groups to write blasphemy laws into international human rights legislation.

Our efforts seem to be paying off, as other countries and organisations begin to appreciate the profound dangers to free speech posed by proposals from the 57-member Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC).

The OIC has sponsored a resolution at the United Nations Human Rights Council entitled “Combating Defamation of Religion.” It has been approved by the UNHRC every year since 2005, and is coming up for renewal in the next couple of months.

But at last the United States and various human rights organisations have woken up to the fact that the OIC resolution is actually an attempt to make “defamation of religion” (and in particular Islam) into an international offence. “Defamation of religion” is a wide ranging concept and can be used to silence any criticism of Islam.

Now U.S. officials have said they hope to persuade “moderate Muslim nations” — among them Senegal, Mali, Nigeria and Indonesia — to reject the measure, which so far lacks the force of law but has provided diplomatic cover for regimes that repress critical speech. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the topic.

Religious rights groups say other U.N. measures, including statements by the Human Rights Council in Geneva, replicate the language of the resolution.

“Before, it was one resolution with no impact and no implementation,” said Felice Gaer, chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, a bipartisan federal body that investigates abuses and proposes policies to advance freedom of thought, conscience and religion. “Now we are seeing a clear attempt by OIC countries to mainstream the concept and insert it into just about every other topic they can,” Miss Gaer said. “They are turning freedom of expression into restriction of expression.”

But some European lawyers are actually helping the OIC case by expressing support for the idea of bringing a prosecution against Kurt Westergaard, the Danish cartoonist of exploding turban fame:

Last year he [Westergaard] had to leave his home after Danish intelligence learned of a “concrete” assassination plot. Earlier this year, he also was forced to leave the hotel in which he had been staying because he posed “too much of a security risk” to other guests and staff.

And then, in June, a “prosecutor general” in Jordan – a Muslim nation usually described as moderate – issued a subpoena demanding Westergaard face a lawsuit in an Amman courtroom.

The 73-year-old cartoonist does not plan to submit. He said that although it ought to be obvious that “my problem is with terrorists not Muslims," people are free to interpret his work as they wish. “Disagreement is very important and if we disagree,” he told a reporter, “it does not mean that we have to sue each other and kill each other."

Apparently, it is not only Islamists who find that logic unpersuasive. The English language Daily Jordan Times reports that attorney Osama Bitar, an attorney affiliated with the lawsuit (on behalf of the “Messenger of Allah Unites Us” campaign – such an inspiring name!) has been in contact with French attorneys who “have expressed their support for the campaign and its lawsuit against Westergaard.”

"The lawyers are studying the possibility of filing a lawsuit against the cartoonist in accordance with French and international law such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,” said Bitar. He added that the French attorneys also are considering contacting colleagues in other European countries to file separate lawsuits against Westergaard.

Bitar enthused: "The idea of European lawyers joining us in the campaign and supporting our efforts is tremendous. We are defending Islam in a civilized way and are trying to hold those responsible for the caricatures accountable according to the law."