Why The Obama Administration Should Have Strongly Opposed the UN Religious Defamation Resolution

Marci A. Hamilton writes at Findlaw: “Islamic countries recently have been pushing the United Nations to adopt a resolution that would make ‘religious defamation’ a civil rights violation. Their theory is that it should be a human rights crime for anyone to speak negatively about a religion. Their aim is to bring the world community to their side in condemning the public criticism of Islamicism in any and every context, including that of political cartoons. Their latest gambit has been to introduce a UN resolution against religious defamation. Instead of stoutly and loudly rejecting such a dangerous principle, as it should have done, the Obama Administration joined Egypt in crafting a misguided compromise resolution. The new Resolution, unfortunately, was adopted unanimously.”