{"id":146,"date":"2011-04-01T16:37:39","date_gmt":"2011-04-01T20:37:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/pray_for_the_persecuted_church\/?p=146"},"modified":"2011-04-19T21:11:27","modified_gmt":"2011-04-20T01:11:27","slug":"assassinations-kill-chances-of-muslim-anti-blasphemy-rule-at-the-u-n","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pray_for_the_persecuted_church\/2011\/04\/assassinations-kill-chances-of-muslim-anti-blasphemy-rule-at-the-u-n.html","title":{"rendered":"Assassinations kill chances of Muslim anti-blasphemy rule at the U.N."},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Assassinated Pakistani leader Salman Taseer<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A Muslim\u00a0push to get the U.N. to approve worldwide anti-blasphemy rules has been quietly dropped after the recent murders of two Pakistani politicians who opposed that country\u2019s controversial laws.<\/p>\n

Pakistan\u2019s strict regulations against defaming the Prophet Mohammed or speaking negatively about the Koran have been seriously abused, say opponents.<\/p>\n

\u201cA long-term campaign by the U.N.\u2019s large Muslim bloc to impose worldwide blasphemy strictures — like those in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Iran — was given a quiet burial last week in the Human Rights Council, the U.N.\u2019s main human-rights body,\u201d reports author Nina Shea.<\/p>\n

She is the director of the Hudson Institute\u2019s Center for Religious Freedom and co-author of Silenced: How Apostasy and Blasphemy Codes are Choking Freedoms Worldwide, <\/em>published by Oxford University Press.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Assassinated Christian politician Shahbaz Bhatti<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cAt the session that ended in Geneva on March 25, the Organization of the Islamic Conference, sensing defeat, decided not to introduce a resolution calling for criminal penalties,\u201d she reported.<\/p>\n

The attempt to get U.N. approval \u201cwas inspired by Ayatollah Khomeini\u2019s infamous 1989 fatwa, directing \u2018all zealous Muslims to execute quickly\u2019 the British author Salman Rushdie and others involved with his book The Satanic Verses,<\/em> reports Shea. \u201cWhile not explicitly embracing vigilantism, the Saudi Arabia-based organization of 56 member states quickly endorsed Khomeini\u2019s novel principle: that Western law should be subject to Muslim measures against apostasy and blasphemy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The effort caused extreme discomfort at the U.N., says Shea.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt deviates sharply from the historically rooted object of international human rights protections by addressing the interests of religious institutions and interpretations, rather than the rights of individuals,\u201d Leonard Leo, chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, explained to Congress in 2009.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Aasia Bibi, condemned for blasphemy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThe coup de gr\u00e2ce<\/em> for the resolution was the murder this month of Pakistan\u2019s renowned minister of minorities, Shahbaz Bhatti, because he opposed his own country\u2019s blasphemy laws,\u201d writes Shea. \u201cHis murder followed that of Punjab governor Salman Taseer and the death sentence given for blasphemy to a Christian mother\u00a0of five,\u00a0Aasia Bibi,\u00a0whom Taseer had defended.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was now impossible for even the Human Rights Council to ignore the disgrace of the blasphemy laws of Pakistan — the main sponsor of its blasphemy resolutions all these years.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Muslim\u00a0push to get the U.N. to approve worldwide anti-blasphemy rules has been quietly dropped after the recent murders of two Pakistani politicians who opposed that country\u2019s controversial laws. Pakistan\u2019s strict regulations against defaming the Prophet Mohammed or speaking negatively about the Koran have been seriously abused, say opponents. \u201cA long-term campaign by the U.N.\u2019s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":270,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,30,4],"tags":[117,119,112],"class_list":["post-146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-islam","category-muslim","category-persecution","tag-islam","tag-muslim","tag-persecution"],"yoast_head":"\nAssassinations kill chances of Muslim anti-blasphemy rule at the U.N. - Pray for the Persecuted Church<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pray_for_the_persecuted_church\/2011\/04\/assassinations-kill-chances-of-muslim-anti-blasphemy-rule-at-the-u-n.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Assassinations kill chances of Muslim anti-blasphemy rule at the U.N. - Pray for the Persecuted Church\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A Muslim\u00a0push to get the U.N. to approve worldwide anti-blasphemy rules has been quietly dropped after the recent murders of two Pakistani politicians who opposed that country\u2019s controversial laws. 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