Heini Skorinis outstanding work exposes the manipulation of human rights language by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation in aid of its agenda. This is scholarship at its best, grounded in careful research of primary sources and a firm grasp of the relevant theoretical and ethical debates and literatures. Ultimately, the book constitutes a forceful defence of the universalist principles which underpin human rights.
Katerina Dalacoura, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK
This timely and important book provides a birds eye view of the political struggle to interpret and define the meaning of human rights and freedom of expression. Empirically and conceptually rich, Skorini explores the double-edged sword of the UN human rights regime, in both promoting human rights and justifying oppressive policies, as well as the strategic framing of diverse actors that makes this paradoxical outcome possible. The book represents an original contribution to the literature on norms, and is a must read for those who wish to understand how norms travel, are contested, and are unavoidably political in their application.
K.M. Fierke, University of St. Andrews, UK
This book gives a unique insight into the ongoing battle of ideas and values as it is played out at the UN. Through interviews with Muslim diplomats, we are introduced to the value judgements and strategies that inform the OICs attempt to curtail free speech. The book is insightful, and gives a thought provoking glimpse into how one religious actor challenges the liberal-democratic norms hegemony and questions its claim to universality. The book is topical and timely, and I suspect it will remain so for years.
Anne Stensvold, University of Oslo, Norway
Heini Skorinis highly original investigation is a major contribution to research on the contestation of norms in International Relations. This timely book reveals the profound global implications associated with discourses on human rights when these come to be defined in communitarian as opposed to cosmopolitan terms.
Vivienne Jabri, Kings College London, UK
Free Speech, Religion and the United Nations
This book explores the political struggle to interpret and define the meaning, the scope and the implications of human rights norms in general and freedom of expression in particular.
From the Rushdie affair and the Danish cartoon affair to the Charlie Hebdo massacre and draconian legislation against blasphemy worldwide, the tensions between free speech ideals and religious sensitivities have polarized global public opinion and the international community of states, triggering fierce political power struggles in the corridors of the UN. Inspired by theories of norm diffusion in International Relations, this book investigates how the struggle to define the limits of free speech vis--vis religion unfolds within the UN system. Revealing how human rights terminology is used and misused, it also considers how the human rights vision paradoxically contains the potential to justify human rights violations in practice. The book explains how states exercise power within the field of international human rights politics and how non-democratic states strategically apply mainstream human rights language and secular human rights law in order to justify authoritarian religious censorship norms both nationally and internationally.
This interdisciplinary book will appeal to scholars and students researching international human rights, religion and politics. The empirical chapters are also relevant for professionals and activists within the field of human rights.
Heini Skorini holds a PhD in International Relations from Kings College London, UK. He is Assistant Professor in the Faculty of History and Social Sciences at the University of the Faroe Islands (Denmark). He teaches international relations, human rights, and religion and politics, both internationally and in a local context. His research interests include religion and society, religion and politics, human rights, freedom of expression, human reasoning in relation to science, religion and political controversy.
Routledge Studies in Religion and Politics
Edited by Jeffrey Haynes
London Metropolitan University, UK
This series aims to publish high quality works on the topic of the resurgence of political forms of religion in both national and international contexts. This trend has been especially noticeable in the post-cold war era (that is, since the late 1980s). It has affected all the world religions (including, Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism) in various parts of the world (such as, the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, South and Southeast Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa).
The series welcomes books that use a variety of approaches to the subject, drawing on scholarship from political science, international relations, security studies, and contemporary history.
Books in the series explore these religions, regions and topics both within and beyond the conventional domain of church-state relations to include the impact of religion on politics, conflict and development, including the late Samuel Huntingtons controversial yet influential thesis about clashing civilisations.
In sum, the overall purpose of the book series is to provide a comprehensive survey of what is currently happening in relation to the interaction of religion and politics, both domestically and internationally, in relation to a variety of issues.
Modern Papal Diplomacy and Social Teaching in World Affairs
Edited by Mariano P. Barbato, Robert J. Joustra and Dennis R. Hoover
Free Speech, Religion and the United Nations
The Political Struggle to Define International Free Speech Norms
Heini Skorini
Racialization, Islamophobia and Mistaken Identity
The Sikh Experience
Jagbir Jhutti-Johal and Hardeep Singh
Religion in the Era of Postsecularism
Edited by Uchenna Okeja
For more information about this series, please visit: www.routledge.com/Routledge-Studies-in-Religion-and-Politics/book-series/RSRP
Free Speech, Religion and the United Nations
The Political Struggle to Define International Free Speech Norms
Heini Skorini
First published 2020
by Routledge
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2020 Heini Skorini
The right of Heini Skorini to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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