By Johann Hari
The right to criticize religion is being slowly doused in acid. Across the world, the small, incremental gains made by secularism -- giving us the space to doubt and question and make up our own minds -- are being beaten back by belligerent demands that we "respect" religion. A historic marker has just been passed, showing how far we have been shoved. The UN rapporteur who is supposed to be the global guardian of free speech has had his job rewritten -- to put him on the side of the religious censors.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights stated sixty years ago that "a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief is the highest aspiration of the common people." It was a Magna Carta for mankind -- and loathed by every human rights abuser on earth. Today, the Chinese dictatorship calls it "Western", Robert Mugabe calls it "colonialist", and Dick Cheney calls it "outdated." The countries of the world have chronically failed to meet it -- but the document has been held up by the United Nations as the ultimate standard against which to check ourselves. Until now. Read more ...
The right to criticize religion is being slowly doused in acid. Across the world, the small, incremental gains made by secularism -- giving us the space to doubt and question and make up our own minds -- are being beaten back by belligerent demands that we "respect" religion. A historic marker has just been passed, showing how far we have been shoved. The UN rapporteur who is supposed to be the global guardian of free speech has had his job rewritten -- to put him on the side of the religious censors.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights stated sixty years ago that "a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief is the highest aspiration of the common people." It was a Magna Carta for mankind -- and loathed by every human rights abuser on earth. Today, the Chinese dictatorship calls it "Western", Robert Mugabe calls it "colonialist", and Dick Cheney calls it "outdated." The countries of the world have chronically failed to meet it -- but the document has been held up by the United Nations as the ultimate standard against which to check ourselves. Until now. Read more ...
Source: Huffington Post
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