HAPPY ANNIVERSARY

“Kids today!”

“I know, I know. Did you see on the news about those teenagers that killed that dad who was playing cricket with his son in a park?”

“Oh yeah. That one where they were started shouting abuse...”

“Yeah, the dad asked them to stop and they responded by throwing stones at him. One or two of them catching him on the head before he collapsed and died as a result.”

“Yeah, I know. Terrible. They want stringing up.”

“Did you also see that report on what’s happened to articles 18 and 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights?”

“Er, no. I must have missed that. Is it important?”

“Well, kind of. You see, these articles guarantee ‘freedom of thought, freedom of conscience, freedom of religion, freedom of opinion, and freedom of thought’.”

“...”

“Well, at the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva on June 16, 2008, an amendment that can strangle these rights was passed.”

“Z”

“The, er, amendment was proposed and supported by the seventeen Islamic member states on the Council, and also China, Russia and Cuba. Oh, and equally complicit by abstaining were delegates representing the so-called West.”

“Zzzzz”

“Did you see that story about that woman being stoned to death in Somalia because she was said to have committed adultery?”

“Uh? What? Oh yeah, disgusting, and it wasn’t adultery. She had, in fact, been gang-raped by three men. I don’t see why nothing can’t be done about it.”

“Not really our business, I suppose.”

“Oh no, but they come over here; burning our flags, throwing bricks through windows and intimidating people when anything depicting Muhammad in a critical light is said or published. And we do nothing about it.”

“I know, I know. There definitely appear to be some double-standards at work.”

“I’ll give you double-standards! They come over here; building their mosques and authorising the assassinations of artists and authors due to criticising some paedophile from the seventh-century with a god complex. And then, and then, some teacher innocently names a classroom teddy – the name nominated by her class, not herself, by the way – Muhammad in Sudan, and she faced imprisonment or forty lashes!”

“One of the prices of freedom of speech, I guess. You have to take the rough with the smooth.”

“Yeah, well, at least we can discuss things like that, I suppose. At least we’re not living in one of those countries and subject to their laws.”

“You sure about that?”

“Aye?”

“Well, you know those amendments I mentioned...”

For the full story: http://www.iheu.org/node/3336