The International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) has condemned a planned public burning of the Quran by a Florida church on the 9th anniversary of the 11 September 2001 attacks. IHEU is the world union of more than 100 Humanist, rationalist, secular, ethical culture, atheist and freethought organizations in more than 40 countries.

A 25 year-old air traffic controller, Ismail Mohamed Didi, was found hanged from the control tower of the international airport in the Maldives on Tuesday, July 13, after he apparently killed himself to escape persecution for his rejection of religion. The suicide is the latest tragedy in a series of persecutions of non-believers in a nation that claims to be "100 percent Muslim." The International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) is raising the issue with the United Nations and representatives of the Maldives government.

In a statement to the Human Rights Council today, 15 June 2010, IHEU Main Representative, Roy Brown, protested against discrimination against non-believers, which, in several states that belong to the Human Rights Council, includes the death penalty for those who reject belief in any god. Brown highlighted a case from the Maldives earlier this month, where Mohammed Nazim was threatened with the death penalty after publicly stating that he found himself unable to believe in Islam.

In a strong statement to the Human Rights Council this morning, IHEU main Representative, Roy Brown accused Pakistan of encouraging discrimination and hatred against religious minorities. Citing condemnation of Pakistan by the Muslim Canadian Congress and a recent resolution of the European parliament calling on Pakistan to remove expressions of hatred from its government approved school textbooks, he reminded the Council and the government of Pakistan that it was government and media support for expressions of hatred that led to the Nazi Holocaust and the genocide in Rwanda.

In a speech condemning the recent passage of a blasphemy law in Ireland, and UK legislation which criminalises, among other things, causing "religiously aggravated distress", Roy Brown, IHEU Main Representative at the UN Geneva, asked the Human Rights Council whether these two governments have forgotten that it is individuals not ideas or beliefs that merit protection. He also criticized the way in which, at the other extreme, Pakistan permits expression of hatred in the media against Ahmadiyyas and other religious minorities to go unchecked.

Five journalists were assassinated in Honduras last month, all in drive-by shootings. In a wave of drug-related violence in the Mexican city of Reynosa, near the border with Texas, several journalists were abducted and one reporter found mysteriously dead.

On 25 March, in the closest vote yet on "Combating Defamation of Religion", the UN Human Rights Council adopted the annual resolution by 20 votes to 17 with eight abstentions. This compares with the 2009 vote of 23 in favour, 11 against, with 13 abstaining. The vote came at the end of a heavy campaign by IHEU and several other NGOs against the concept of defamation of religion.

Since 1999 several resolutions entitled “Combating Defamation of Religions” have been adopted by various United Nations bodies, including the UN Commission on Human Rights, the new UN Human Rights Council and, in 2007 and 2008, by the UN General Assembly itself. A similar resolution is likely to come up before the General Assembly at the end of 2009.

The International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) has joined with more than 100 other groups from more than 20 countries to protest a so-called “global blasphemy law” proposed by the United Nations (UN). Last month, for the first time ever, a UN body proposed a legally-binding treaty to combat the “defamation of religions.”

The IHEU policy paper, Speaking Freely About Religion: Religious Freedom, Defamation and Blasphemy, is available for download at the bottom of this page.

Speaking Freely About Religion:
Religious Freedom, Defamation and Blasphemy

Executive Summary