Danger To Muslims Everywhere!

I can't decide whether to be angry or amused at this:

The Organisation of Islamic Conference at the UN contends that Muslims are at risk of a racial holocaust.

The group is pushing to make "defamation of Islam" a global criminal offence.
ROP and World Evangelical Alliance reported:

OIC & THE UN: ISLAMOPHOBIA AND "DEFAMATION OF RELIGION"

(OIC: Organisation of Islamic Conference)

Durban I -- the UN's first World Conference on Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance -- which was held in Durban, South Africa, in early September 2001 ended with a walkout over its virulent anti-Semitism. Yet sadly it now seems clear that the Durban Review Conference (or Durban II), which will be held in Geneva in April 2009, is shaping up to be even worse.

As a prelude to Durban II, a Second Preparatory Session of the 20-state Preparatory Committee -- of which Libya has been elected chair with Cuba, Pakistan and Iran as vice-chairs -- was held in Geneva from 6 to 17 October 2008. The resulting "Draft Outcome Document for the Durban Review Conference 2009" is now available on the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) website.

It is clear from the draft document, as well as from reports emanating from the subsequent 63rd UN General Assembly meeting held in Geneva during the first week of November, that a central focus of Durban II will be "Islamophobia", which is being presented as "a new form of racism".

Muslims, the draft declaration asserts, are at dire risk of a racial "holocaust" due to "a new form of racism" -- "Islamophobia" -- which is incited through "defamation of Islam".

The draft declaration recommends that local, national and international laws and human rights covenants be reviewed and amended as necessary so that "defamation of Islam" is made a criminal offence, losing the protection it has long enjoyed under the "pretext" of "freedom of expression, counter terrorism or national security". It recommends that legal instruments be established to punish offenders -- that is, those who "defame" Islam by associating it with violence, human rights abuses or terrorism.

Anne Bayefsky, a York University professor and human rights lawyer who attended the Second Preparatory Session in Geneva, warns: "This is the new dimension of Durban 2, which in many ways makes it a greater threat than Durban 1. It's really setting up a war of ideas, that has rough implications, between Islamic states and everybody else... Durban 1 was called an assault on Israel; a demonisation of Israel as racist and analogous to Apartheid South Africa. But in addition, Durban 2 is an assault on freedom of expression and other essential democratic rights and freedoms." (Link 2)

Riiiiiight...! Because those poor Muslims are constantly in danger of being tortured and beheaded by us frothy-mouthed, bloodthirsty Christians!

I think I'll be amused rather than angry.

Of course, the thought of criminalizing so-called 'Islamophobia' does have some extremely disturbing ramifications, don't you think? For example, do you remember the Flying Imams? Last year, a group of Islamic Imams boarded an airplane in Minnesota, asked for seat belt extensions (though none of them were fat), sat in seats that weren't theirs, and began praying loudly. Some passengers were concerned and notified the authorities. The Imams were removed from the plane. Now, call me crazy, but that seems like a very reasonable precaution, don't you? However, that is precisely the kind of thing that most certainly will be labeled 'Islamophobia', and if some kind of law were to be passed, anyone reporting such suspicious behavior would be subject to criminal prosecution.

Maybe it's not so amusing after all...

There's my two cents.