“We urge Arab and Muslim governments to spare no effort to pressure the UN to issue a resolution banning the slandering of religions,” said the Arab Inter-Parliamentary Union, following a two-day conference at a Dead Sea resort in Jordan.
The 16-country union, represented by over 200 Arab politicians, released a statement calling on "Arab and Islamic governments [to] pressure the United Nations to issue a resolution banning the slandering of religions," said more than 200 Arab politicians, who used the occasion to renew their criticism of the Danish Muhammad cartoons. The statement also said that "those who violate such a resolution should face legal action."
Meanwhile, in Doha, Qatar, the UN held a conference aimed at healing the rift caused by the Islamic response to the cartoons, which was described as being "just a small part of an expanding divide between Islam and the West."
“What we face nowadays is not a clash of civilisations but a clash mostly caused by ignorance, arrogance, insensitivity and festering political differences that fuel hostilities,” Turkish secretary of state Mehmet Aydin said.
The same day as these two occurences, in Karachi, Pakistan, 5,000 children ages 8 to 12 demonstrated at a rally spnsored by Pakistan’s largest Islamic group. They chanted slogans like “hang those who insulted the prophet,” and burned a coffin draped in American, Israeli and Danish flags.
The European Union released a statement Monday saying that, although it regretted that the cartoons were “considered offensive” by Muslims, freedom of expression “is a fundamental right and an essential element of a democratic discourse.”
Obviously, the Islamic world does not agree with this fundamentally true principle, and if the UN does not do a far better job at standing up to the Islamist bullies in the world community, and approves a resolution against free speech, there will no longer be any freedom or democracy left to defend.
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