This title is from an article in the Sydney Morning Herald, by Dick “Godless” Gross.

Excerpts:

According to an article in The Age by religion editor Barney Zwartz, for more than a decade, there has been a UN debate about the criticising of faith. The 56-member Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) wants the freedom to have its way with its critics.  The OIC is comfortable allowing sovereign nations to have a role in stamping out such criticism.

The debate concerns a proposed resolution denouncing the ‘‘defamation of religion’’.  In 2009, after 10 years of debate, a resolution was carried in the UN Human Rights Commission with the OIC countries gaining support from Latin America, Africa and others.  The resolution exhorts member states to respect the practices of faith.  It expressly condemns Islamophobia. This all sounds innocuous enough, but it is a de facto licence for followers of any faith to embark on unspeakable barbarity and intolerance.
The godless approach, too, might lack some credibility with the supporters of this defamation position because we are the hated apostates.  But at least the godless are consistent.  Atheism has for several centuries railed against the rules of blasphemy.

Atheists have a stark choice.  We could fondly observe the inter-faith brutality and seek to profit from the irrational rivers of blood that flow.  Surely, there is no greater voice for godlessness than the screaming voices of those tormented in the name of God.  Or we could use our tiny voice to broker sense in the world.

Atheism is thus charged with a duty to oppose this UN dogma, which while non-binding now, is making the journey into a more legislative phase. We must try to hear the legitimate complaints of Islam about oppression in Europe. We must contest as the resolution moves through the labyrinthine UN processes.