At a special session of the United Nations General Assembly, the leader of the religious apartheid kingdom of Saudi Arabia will sit down in the same room with an Israeli for the first time. What would bring Abdullah to do this, an act that must be repugnant to him? Answer: the possibility that he may be able to talk the gullible infidels into criminalizing blasphemy.

WASHINGTON – World leaders gathering at the United Nations this week for a special session of the General Assembly to advance interfaith dialogue should have no illusions that their efforts will miraculously promote mutual respect between religious communities or end abuses of religious freedom.

Saudi King Abdullah, who initiated this week’s special session, is quietly enlisting the leaders’ support for a global law to punish blasphemy – a campaign championed by the 56-member Organization of Islamic Conference that puts the rights of religions ahead of individual liberties.

If the campaign succeeds, states that presume to speak in the name of religion will be able to crush religious freedom not only in their own country, but abroad.

The UN session is designed to endorse a meeting of religious leaders in Spain last summer that was the brainchild of King Abdullah and organized by the Muslim World League. That meeting resulted in a final statement counseling promotion of “respect for religions, their places of worship, and their symbols … therefore preventing the derision of what people consider sacred.”

The lofty-sounding principle is, in fact, a cleverly coded way of granting religious leaders the right to criminalize speech and activities that they deem to insult religion. Instead of promoting harmony, however, this effort will exacerbate divisions and intensify religious repression.

This isn’t a low-level campaign; it will be attended by world leaders, and some of them have already signaled their acquiescence to the agenda: The Big Saudi Swindle.

(Hat tip: Soccer Dad and Nancy.)