A World-Wide Ban on Criticism of Islam?

This nine-minute video, hosted by Christine Tasin, appears at Riposte Laïque. It is a warning about the proposed plan to criminalize on a world-wide basis any criticism of Islam or sharia. The video is in sections, with text or commentary from Christine in French. There is also an English-language segment. Throughout part of the video you will hear in the background the air "Va, Pensiero" from the opera Nabucco by Verdi. This beloved song is sung in the opera by the Hebrew slaves in Babylon as they long for their homeland.

I have put in italics those passages that appear as text in the video, and I have divided my translation into thirteen sections for convenience. Several sections are adaptations or condensations of the original.

1 - Christine Tasin: The European countries have agreed to host, in July, the next meeting of the Istanbul Process, the project to criminalize any criticism of Islam. The place and date are not yet known. But the news is troubling.

2 - (Written text) "The Istanbul Process is directed by the OCI (Organization of Islamic Cooperation), headquartered in Saudi Arabia, an intergovernmental organization created on September 25, 1969 under the name of Organization of the Islamic Conference. It groups together fifty-seven member States and possesses a permanent delegation to the U.N. It changed its name on June 28, 2011 and is the only international organization on a supra-national level that is religious in nature."

3 - Christine Tasin's voice is heard over the Riposte Laïque banner featuring an article by Bernard Dick entitled The OCI Exerts Pressure to Turn Defamation of a Religion into a Crime.

Christine Tasin: The goal of the Istanbul Process is to write into international law a ban of all criticism of Islam and sharia.

The OCI has already had a vote in this direction, referring to the notorious 16/18 resolution of the United Nations Council on Human Rights that calls on all countries to fight against the stigmatization of religions. In order for this resolution to be implemented the Western nations have to follow it. Until now this has not been the case. Yet two important steps have been taken. First Washington hosted in December 2011 a meeting of the Istanbul Process. Agreeing to host this meeting means agreeing to the idea that Islamophobia should be suppressed. It means legitimizing the OCI and its fight against freedom of speech. It means agreeing that blasphemy should again be made a crime

4 - (Written text) "To know more about the OCI, the Istanbul Process and what the U.S.A. and Brussels are devising. A world worse than 1984. The disappearance, pure and simple, of freedom of speech, and religion imposed on everybody. Will they succeed in turning us into silent trembling slaves?"

5 - (Written text by Bernard Dick) "To say that jihadists use Islamic texts and teachings while encouraging violence in order to impose the supremacy of Islam and sharia is liable to become a crime. The complicity of the United States and Western governments on this question is a betrayal of our values and a submission to political Islam, a submission to moneyed Islamic organizations."

6 - (Written text translated from the Arabic by Bernard Dick) "In the course of the months to come, the American capital, Washington, will host a coordinating committee to discuss with the OCI the modalities of application of the 16/18 decision on the defamation of religions, the ban on stereotyped images of religions and their followers, as well as the spread of religious tolerance, which was adopted last March by the Human Rights Council (of the United Nations) with the approval of the Western nations. This resolution had been adopted after long discussions between the OIC and the countries where the phenomenon of Islamophobia is known."

7 - (Written text translated from the Arabic by Bernard Dick) "The same sources say that the next meetings have as their goal to provide a legal basis for the decision of the Council on Human Rights of the United Nations and to allow those States affected by this problem to legislate, and even more: to enact international laws that would prevent inciting to hatred resulting from defamation of religions."

8 - Christine Tasin: We have no illusions about Obama who has defended Islam.

(Written text) "Obama has made Islam a religion of the United States"

(Written text from Obama's Cairo speech, 2009) "In the same way, it is important that Western countries avoid preventing Muslims from practicing their religion as they wish, for example, by dictating what Muslim women must wear. In a word, we cannot disguise hostility toward religion under the cover of liberalism."

(Written text) "Obama: 'The United States Will Never Be At War with Islam'

The American president gave a speech in Cairo in the form of a reconciliation with the Muslim world. He gave his support to the creation of a Palestinian State and asked that Israeli colonization cease."

9 - This part is in English. Republican Congressman Dan Lungren questions Paul N. Stockton, Assistant Secretary of Homeland Defense. Notice that besides arguing about Islam they each have a different pronunciation for al-Qaeda.

10 - Christine Tasin points out the importance of the United States that serves as a model for other countries.

(Written text, Obama's speech) "Well-versed in history, I know too the debt that civilization owes to Islam. And all through history, Islam has proved, in words and in deeds, the possibilities of religious tolerance and of racial equality." (Applause) "I know too that Islam has always been a part of American History."

11 - Christine Tasin: We know the litany of oppressive measures, torture and intimidation endured by those in Islamic countries who contravene the Islamic laws: death sentences, stoning, amputation, flagellation are the lot of hundreds of people every day. The United States has no problem with this, the United States is doing all it can to make Islamic law world law. We know the lot of women in Islamic countries and the hell they live in from childhood. What are our elite doing that they are willing to host such a conference? We cannot, we must not allow this to happen. We must protest, we must rise up, we must say to all our representatives, all our deputies that we do not want this. There must be a movement that rises up against this abomination.

12 - The French flag is the backdrop for a pop-style patriotic song:

"People of France, the time has come for you to break the silence and have your voice heard, People of France do not resign yourselves, Resist the enemy of your laws."

13 - Christine Tasin: We have no illusions. The European Commission, like Obama, works secretly to prevent us from criticizing Islam. Proof? The Commission has created a network to sensitize people about the radical reaction following the massacre in Norway. I quote Le Monde, 09/09/2011, regarding the killer Anders Breivik:

"We are afraid (…) that his act becomes, in the future, a source of inspiration for other extremists, because the ideas of groups hostile to Islam have spread considerably since 2001. 'They dispose of a vast potential for recruitment, superior to that of the neo-nazis obsessed with the Jewish question. They benefit from a feeling of skepticism with regard to Muslims that is widespread in our societies,' he explained."

Christine Tasin: We cannot say that we didn't know. It is urgent to get out of the European Union. And it is urgent that the ruling elite change their national and international policies. Vive la République! Vive la France!



There is an English-language article on this topic at the New York Post.