UN Condemns Cartoons Offensive to Muslims

A statement released on October 28th by the office of the High Representative for the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) claimed that the republication in France of satirical caricatures depicting Prophet Muhammed was responsible for provoking “acts of violence against innocent civilians who were attacked for their sheer religion, belief or ethnicity.” The UNAOC statement went on to say that “insulting religions and sacred religious symbols provokes hatred and violent extremism leading to polarization and fragmentation of the society.” This statement, which UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has endorsed, was issued 12 days after a jihadist beheaded a French teacher, Samuel Paty, who had shown his students the Muhammed caricatures.

"Islamist terrorist attack"

French President Emmanuel Macron correctly called the brutal killing an “Islamist terrorist attack.” Last week, another jihadist stabbed two women and a man to death at the Notre-Dame Basilica in Nice, which once again Macron linked to Islamist terrorism. Macron upheld one of Western civilization’s greatest accomplishments by defending free speech against extremist violence from whatever source. “Samuel Paty ... became the face of the Republic, of our will to shatter terrorists, to (do away with) Islamists, to live like a community of free citizens in our country," Macron said. “We will continue." Macron added that “Samuel Paty was the victim of a conspiracy of stupidity, hate, lies ... hate of the other ... hate of what we profoundly are." In other words, Islamic jihadists are the haters who indulge in violence, not a teacher who was simply trying to teach his students about the value of free speech. Exercising the right to criticize any religion or satirize its beliefs does not prevent Muslims from exercising their right to freely worship their faith and to honor Islam’s prophet. Yet the UN would subordinate the fundamental right of free speech to the avoidance of any critical expression that adherents of Islam find “insulting and deeply offensive.” Why hasn’t the UN Alliance of Civilizations spoken out forcefully against Chinese President Xi Jinping’s vow to ‘Sinicise’ religion? Under Xi’s direction, the Chinese regime is purging from Chinese society any religious belief that deviates from official Chinese Communist Party doctrine. Yet UN leaders have rarely called out the Chinese regime for real religious persecution and jackhammer repression of religious minorities in China, who simply sought to freely worship their faith. Instead, the UN bureaucracy would rather focus on so-called “hate speech.”

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The Muslim world’s answer was violence and calls for boycotts of French products

The Chinese regime, for example, strictly governs which Christian churches are permitted to operate. Unauthorized churches have been closed. Christian pastors deemed “subversive” have been detained. Chinese church pastor Huang Xiaoning, who has been persecuted by Chinese authorities and shut out of his own church, said: “In substance, the theories of Christianity and Communism are at great odds with each other, so persecution against Christianity is a given.” The Chinese regime has gone after other religious minorities as well. “Whether it’s the Dalai Lama or the Pope, or it’s the head of Falun Gong [a spiritual group], the state won’t tolerate it,” explained professor Dru Gladney, an expert in China’s ethnic minority groups. Uighurs and other Muslims in China have been subjected to prolonged detention, surveillance, political indoctrination, systematic torture, and forced labor. French President Macron is one of several Western leaders who have raised concerns about the Chinese regime’s abuses against China’s Muslim Uighur minority. Macron did so during a meeting he held last summer with China’s State Councillor and Foreign Minister. But the Muslim world did not return the favor when Macron vowed to protect freedom of speech in his own country against Islamist extremists. The Muslim world’s answer was violence and calls for boycotts of French products. Turkey’s Islamist President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who fancies himself as a major leader of the Muslim world, said Macron was being intolerant and needs “mental checks."

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Erdogan is a self-righteous hypocrite

Erdogan is a self-righteous hypocrite. While Macron has confronted China about its treatment of Muslim Uighurs, Erdogan has sold out the Uighurs who have sought refuge in Turkey. Erdogan has been helping the Chinese regime to repatriate Uighur Muslims back to China. Turkish policemen reportedly arrested a refugee for speaking out against China’s treatment of Uighurs. While Erdogan had criticized China’s treatment of Uighurs in the past, the Chinese regime has evidently bought his betrayal of Muslim Uighurs with economic assistance. The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) is also hypocritical. Its human rights body condemned “remarks of French politicians encouraging publishing blasphemous caricatures under the guise of a distorted version of the right to freedom of expression which manifestly prohibits incitement to hatred, discrimination and respect for rights of others protected under International Human Rights Law.” Of course, OIC countries violate international human rights law all the time, including freedom of religion. But even more to the point, just last year the Council of Foreign Ministers under the Organization of Islamic Cooperation adopted a resolution commending “the efforts of the People’s Republic of China in providing care to its Muslim citizens.” The OIC brushed off the mass arbitrary detention of more than a million Muslims in China’s dreadful internment camps because of their religion and ethnicity. Satiric cartoons are reason enough for OIC condemnation, but never mind about the abusive Chinese regime’s mass persecution of Muslims. It is obvious that the OIC, Erdogan and the United Nations bureaucracy do not want to ruffle the feathers of the Chinese Communist leadership.