I feel in progressive circles and especially on the "blogosphere," President Obama takes a lot of crap for stuff completely out of his control.
This, however, is something that the president should be harshly criticized over. Jonathan Turley writes:
While attracting surprisingly little attention, the Obama administration supported the effort of largely Muslim nations in the U.N. Human Rights Council to recognize exceptions to free speech for any "negative racial and religious stereotyping." The exception was made as part of a resolution supporting free speech that passed this month, but it is the exception, not the rule that worries civil libertarians. Though the resolution was passed unanimously, European and developing countries made it clear that they remain at odds on the issue of protecting religions from criticism. It is viewed as a transparent bid to appeal to the "Muslim street" and our Arab allies, with the administration seeking greater coexistence through the curtailment of objectionable speech. Though it has no direct enforcement (and is weaker than earlier versions), it is still viewed as a victory for those who sought to juxtapose and balance the rights of speech and religion.
The United Nations Human Rights Council has been beyond worthless since its inception. President Obama's decision to re-join the council, it was hoped, would lend a bit of credibility to the organization, and unfortunately, our support of curtailing of free speech is out there for everyone to see.
President Obama just sanctioned the punishment of scholars, authors, anyone who would dare criticize Islam, Christianity, Scientology, or any other fairy tale and offend a believer.
Already the West is bowing down to the crazies:
• In Holland, Dutch prosecutors arrested cartoonist Gregorius Nekschot for insulting Christians and Muslims with cartoons, including one that caricatured a Christian fundamentalist and a Muslim fundamentalist as zombies who want to marry and attend gay rallies.
In Poland, Catholic magazine Gosc Niedzielny was fined $11,000 for inciting "contempt, hostility and malice"by comparing the abortion of a woman to the medical experiments at Auschwitz.
The "blasphemy" cases include the prosecution of writers for calling Mohammed a "pedophile" because of his marriage to 6-year-old Aisha (which was consummated when she was 9). A far-right legislator in Austria, a publisher in India and a city councilman in Finland have been prosecuted for repeating this view of the historical record.
The psycho religious nutjobs will be tough to defeat if they are enabled to completely control the dialogue and that's obviously why the Muslim nations on the HRC would push this issue so hard. Why Obama would join with them boggles the mind. (Oh, and don't you dare say I think Obama's a secret Muslin, because he's not. He's just wrong here.)