A little ray of light

Although not widely reported, last Thursday may turn out to be a turning point in the battle between supporters of free speech and supporters of special pleading. Islamic countries set aside their 12-year campaign to have religions protected from "defamation", allowing the U.N. Human Rights Council to approve a plan to promote religious tolerance, switching the emphasis from protecting the idea of religion to protecting the practitioners of religion.

This is a much better outcome for humanity, it allows for the concept that religions may be legitimately criticised, in my view an essential thing to have if we are to avoid further division and discrimination in societies along religious fault lines in the future. On a more worrying note, it's interesting that Pakistan is singled out in the review, for some time now the Islamization of Pakistan has been proceeding at pace with outspoken objectors to medieval blasphemy laws being gunned down in cold blood. A secular Pakistan is an important idea for the west,  a theocratic Pakistan would seem a backward and problematic step.