Rose on Rushdie

Just in time for Rushdie Affair 2.0, Pajamas Media has added Mr. Flemming Rose to its list of contributors. As culture editor of the Danish newspaper Jyllands Posten, Mr. Rose was the driving force behind the decision to publish the Danish Mohammed cartoons. Like Sir Salman, Rose has been on the receiving end of Islamist threats and intimidation. This is what makes his column on the Rushdie situation very much worth reading:

Again: insult, blasphemy, respect for religion, those words are being repeated over and over again as justification for violent attacks and death threats. By the Iranian government, by the chairman of the Muslim Council of Britain, and by leading politicians and opinion makers in the West.

And they have made their way into the United Nation’s Human Rights Council, the highest ranking international body with the mission of protecting human rights. On March 30 it passed a scandalous resolution condoning state punishment of speech that governments deems as insulting for religion.

“The resolution is based in the expectation that it will compel the international community to acknowledge and address the disturbing phenomenon of the defamation of religions, especially Islam,” said Pakistan, speaking on behalf of the Organization of the Islamic Conference.

What does this mean? Well, it means that the UN is encouraging every dictatorship to pass laws that make criticism of Islam a crime. The UN Human Rights Council legitimizes the criminal persecution of sir Salman Rushdie for having insulted people’s religious sensibilities. Beautiful, isn’t it?