The UN Human Rights Council today passed a resolution labeling “defamation of religion” a human rights violation. The resolution was sponsored by a group of Muslim nations hoping to preempt Western criticism of actual human rights violations inside their countries. This represents a successful attempt to internationalize the Qur’anic prohibition on criticism of Islam.

There’s no surprise here: The UN’s defining role is as enabler of repression and prejudice. Whether protecting Sudanese butchers on behalf of Chinese autocrats, or Iranian theocrats on behalf of Russian autocrats, the UN has inverted the definition of human rights with stunning finality. One can argue about the restorative ideological pendulum that swings inside the United States. But the UN only moves in one direction –anti-Western– by small steps and great leaps. It is the body’s fundamental incompetence and cowardice that prevent today’s development from being a larger catastrophe. For just as the UN fails to intercede in the event of a real human rights violation, it will, in all likelihood, do nothing about manufactured ones.