SHOCKING LACK OF COVERAGE - AT 7:23 A.M. ET:

GENEVA (AP) — The U.N.’s top human-rights body approved a proposal backed by Muslims nations Thursday urging the passage of laws around the world protecting religion from criticism.

The proposal by Pakistan had drawn strong criticism from free-speech campaigners and liberal democracies.

A simple majority of 23 members of the 47-nation Human Rights Council voted in favor of the resolution. Eleven mostly Western nations opposed it and 13 countries abstained.

The resolution urges states to provide “protection against acts of hatred, discrimination, intimidation and coercion resulting from defamation of religions and incitement to religious hatred in general.”

“It is individuals who have rights and not religions,” said Canadian diplomat Terry Cormier. Canada’s criticism was echoed by European Union countries, all of which voted against the proposal.

COMMENT:  How much coverage of this outrage, which is designed to silence all criticism of Islam, did you see in our mainstream media?  This is the opening gun of a battle to roll back freedom of speech, and give the rollback international legitimacy.  I'm sorry to say that there are probably many Americans, especially among the intellectual elites, who back this kind of thing.  After all, many colleges and universities have imposed "speech codes" to regulate speech that favored groups find "offensive." 

Ronald Reagan once said that we're always one generation away from losing our freedoms.  Yesterday's action by the obscenely named "Human Rights Council" reminds us of how quickly a generation can go by.  The silence of the American media, most of whose members were trained in universities where those speech codes are common, is appalling.

March 27, 2009