In a move that will give states and other parties who are offended by free speech precedent to further restrict it, the United Nations has again passed the resolution forbidding “defamation of religion.”
This is its third time through the Byzantine U.N. voting process. Allegedly put forward to protect religion from, well, people saying mean things, the resolution was tellingly put forward by Pakistan on behalf of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, not a group renowned for its defense of minority religious practice.
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Although this year’s resolution replaced “defamation’ with “vilification” and installed a few other cosmetic changes, it was the same bill. And although it passed by a smaller margin, it passed nonetheless, so the news that the move’s support is eroding is a bit rosy. The continued implications of this move are the same as last time. Among the most important is the fact that tyrannous states already use religious rationale to justify imprisonment and torture – such as that of Kareem Amer of Egypt and Walid Husayin of Palestine – and will use it more; those who don’t use it as much, will.
The text of this year’s resolution threw alleged concern for “Judeophobia and Christianophobia” into the text, but neglects to speak of these two groups anywhere else. This resolution is certain to give moral and political juice to anyone in a non-Islamic country, such as those in Europe, who seek to criminalize criticism of Islam. Countries with a fully-functioning mechanism of tyranny will not suddenly open up to religious freedom. You won’t see a church in Riyadh or a falun gong meeting house in Shanghai. You might see a critic of Islam in Hamburg locked up, however, or a Copt in Egypt jailed for protesting that Christ is the light and the way. So much for freedom, of religion or speech.
Indian arrested for email joke. A government employee from Kerala state named Moithu was “summoned to the Cyber Police Station there and arrested on Nov. 11 for forwarding an email joke about the election debacle of the ruling CPM (Communist Party-Marxist) party to a few friends.”
U.S. District Court denies warrantless GPS tracking. “A divided federal appeals court in Washington this afternoon rejected the U.S. Justice Department’s request that the full court overturn a ruling that requires law enforcement officials to get a warrant before using a GPS device to track a suspect.” This is a bit of push-back to the post-9/11 tendency in the U.S. to relax civil rights protections in law for the supposed sake of security and is a welcome thing.
“UltraSurf” added to arsenal of circumvention tools. A computer security specialist once told me, “Any group, with enough time and enough money, can find out who you are.” This is too often forgotten in a dreamy belief in tools that too many imagine to be fool-proof anti-tyranny devices. Although UltraSurf, created by American falun gong practitioners, gets good reviews, and although most people who are arrested for online activities have done their work in full view, with real names and no protection, nothing is fool-proof. Anyone who wants to use a tool like this should be aware of that.
Kuwaiti blogger and journalist arrested, again. Mohamed Abdel Qader Al-Jassem was originally sentenced to six months for slander in April for his writings on the government and ruling family, particularly on the prime minister. The sentence was suspended and he was released on bail pending an appeal. He is a journalist both online and on TV, an observer for human rights groups and a blogger. Several days ago he was re-sentenced for the same alleged crime, this time for one year.
Egypt tries Facebook user in military court. Accused of disclosing military secrets on his Facebook group, Ahmad Hassan Bassiouny has been hauled before a secret military court.
The Facebook page gave information on compulsory military service and was named after the ministry that oversees that service, the Administration of Military Recruitment and Mobilization. The sole goal of the group seems to be to provide information to fellow recruits on the process. It’s bad enough to bang people up because they say you suck, it’s cosmically retarded to do so when their actions are “patriotic.” But those who will do one, will clearly do the other. Tyranny is a disease that doesn’t distinguish between a “guilty” vector and an innocent one.
Photo of religion stencil by Tom Rolfe
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