US resists (sort of) UN religious anti-defamation resolution

Michael Posner, the assistant U.S. secretary of state for human rights, democracy and labor whose office prepares the religious freedom report, said the resolution “goes too far.”

“The notion that a religion can be defamed and that any comments that are negative about that religion can constitute a violation of human rights to us violates the core principle of free speech,” he said.

“The protection of speech about religion is particularly important since persons of different faith will inevitably hold divergent views on religious questions,” Hillary Clinton said. “These differences should be met with tolerance, not with the suppression of discourse.”

Hey, maybe someone’s listening to critics of the joint US-Egypt resolution. But are we safe yet?

“There are limits to free expression and there are certainly concerns about people targeting individuals because of their religious belief or their race or their ethnicity,” he said.

What those limits are exactly remains to be seen as does what constitutes an appropriate response to those who go beyond them. Read the article here and stay tuned.