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UN General Assembly Passes Defamation of Religion Resolution With Less Support

By Howard M. Friedman

Yesterday, the United Nations General Assembly-- for the fourth year in a row-- passed a resolution urging member states to take action against defamation of religions and religious hatred. a href="http://in.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idINIndia-37100620081218"Reuters/a reports that the resolution, supported by the Organization of the Islamic Conference, passed by a vote of 86 to 53 with 42 abstentions. This was significantly less support that the resolution garnered last year. Many Western countries and Christian advocacy groups have strongly opposed the resolution, arguing that it improperly restricts freedom of expression. Earlier this week, NPR's Morning Edition had a segment on the resolution (a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=98321049"audio recording/a). (See a href="http://religionclause.blogspot.com/2008/11/uns-3rd-committee-approves-resolution.html"prior related posting/a.)

Full post as published by Religion Clause on December 19, 2008 (boomark / email).