Videtis quantum scelus contra rem publicam vobis nuntiatum sit

Excerpted from National Review

2009 - A Year to Defend Free Speech

On March 28 of last year, the UN hit rock bottom. Its Human Rights Council—whose members include such stalwart defenders of freedom as China, Cuba, Angola, and Saudi Arabia—adopted a resolution that severely modified the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression. Instead of simply reporting on cases in which the right to free expression is being violated, the special rapporteur will now also have to report on cases in which that right is being “abused”—including when individuals use their freedom of speech to criticize Islam, or the particular elements of Islam that jihadists use to justify violence and Islamic supremacism. In essence, this means that the function of the special rapporteur has changed 180 degrees—from safeguarding the rights of individuals who hold unpopular or controversial ideas, to trying to limit the freedom of individuals to express such ideas.

It is official: the United Nations is opposed to the concept of free speech. Some might say this only applies to objectionable speech except that unobjectionable speech needs no protection. In the Netherlands not just Gert Wilders but critics of Islam have come under sanction:

Publish in a blog that the Prophet Muhammad was a murderer, rapist and pedophile according to Islamic teaching, upload a video to YouTube showing Muslim demonstrators behaving like Nazi SA Brownshirts, mention the fact that the word "Jihad" means struggle and "Mien Kamf" means my struggle, suggest that Islam is not a religion like Christianity but a geo-political movement like Communism or Fascism could get one sent to prison, even in Canada. The Canadian Human Rights Commission has the power to search and seize evidence without warrant even in private homes, hold hearings without observing legal procedures - where truth is no defence - and freedom of speech is an "American concept" which has no value. Not that your humble scribe is particularly worried as nobody reads this drivel anyway. A voice crying in the wilderness as it were.