(from Blair Scott submitted to Atheists.org)
SOURCE: Atheists.org Blog
American Atheists has received a lot of emails about the UN Blasphemy Resolution. Yesterday, American Atheists sent out a press release announcing that the resolution had been defeated. At the same time, the AP was running a story that the resolution had passed.
The confusion lies in the type of resolution that each is talking about.
The AP is reporting on the Human Rights Council passing a non-binding resolution, which is nothing more than a statement. Countries on the current 2009 membership of the UNHRC are: Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Cameroon, Canada, China, Cuba, Djibouti, Germany, Jordan, Malaysia, Mauritius, Mexico, Nigeria, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Switzerland, and Uruguay.
The Main Assembly of the UN rejected the blasphemy “legislation” and upheld freedom of speech.
While the Council’s resolution is non-binding and nothing more than a way to appease Islamic countries because of the dismal failure of the idea in the UN General Assembly, that is not stopping groups like the UN Watch, World Jewish Congress, and others to slam the resolution.
We hope that clears up any confusion!
And yes, we too are still trying to figure out how countries like Saudi Arabia, Djibouti, China, Nigeria, and Cuba get on the Human Rights Council.
