The Cartoons Conspiracy

The story behind the story of the furor over the Muhammad cartoons

Comments (0) By Nat Hentoff Tuesday, Feb 14 2006

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The Organization of Islamic Conference's goal is to inhibit criticism of Islamic jihadism by threats of violence. It's beginning to work. On February 9, the European Union called for a voluntary code of conduct to avoid offending Muslims. On the same day, Kofi Annan agreed with an OIC proposal mandating that a revised U.N. Human Rights Council "prevent instances of intolerance discrimination, incitement of hatred and violence . . . against religions, prophets, and beliefs." The language is intentionally very broad.

This would enforce censorship by U.N. members and NGOs (nongovernmental organizations there) against purported defamation of Muslims in print and other forms of speech.

Before these yieldings to the Organization of Islamic Conference, Eric Fettman, on the editorial board of the New York Post, predicted: "Showing sudden sensitivity in the face of the murderous mobs . . . is to effectively endorse violent intimidation of the press." To some extent, this has already begun.