GENEVA, February 14, 2006 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Muslim countries are pressing for a ban on religious intolerance to be part of the bedrock of a planned new United Nations human rights body, officials said on Tuesday, February 14.

"Since the controversy over the cartoons, certain governments have expressed a wish to include a reference to the protection of particular values in the resolution" that would create the UN Human Rights Council, said UN spokeswoman Marie Heuze.

The proposal by 57 governments which are grouped in the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) comes as the outcry continues in the Muslim world over the publication of Danish caricatures that lampooned Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

According to the text of the proposal, the new UN body should strive to "prevent instances of intolerance, discrimination, incitement of hatred and violence arising from any actions against religions, prophets and beliefs which threaten the enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms."

It also says that "defamation of religions and prophets is inconsistent with the right to freedom of expression" and that states, organizations and the media have a "responsibility in promoting tolerance and respect for religious and cultural values."

The move is likely to complicate efforts to build consensus by the end of this week among all UN members on setting up the new council, which would replace the UN Human Rights Commission -- a forum that has come under increasing criticism for failing to spotlight abuses.

Some governments see the Muslim proposal as out of step with a broader accord to create the new body, said officials.

Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey said that linking the two issues could endanger those efforts.

She instead favored a separate UN resolution on respect for religions.

There has been rising demand in the Muslim world for such a UN move.

Muslim dignitaries and organizations have called for the enactment of an international law banning the publication of any insults to religious symbols and values.

The OIC and the Arab League, the Muslim world's two main political bodies, are also seeking a UN resolution, backed by possible sanctions, to protect religions following the publication of provocative cartoons.

The cartoons, one of them showing the Prophet with a bomb-shaped turban, were first published in Denmark last year, and have been reprinted by newspapers in France, Germany, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands and other countries on the ground of freedom of expression.

That argument has been rejected by most Muslim countries, which say it should not be used as a pretext to insult their religions.

Any image of the Prophet -- let alone biting caricatures -- is considered blasphemous under Islam.

"Because having the freedom without responsibility could lead our civilization to absolute liberalism," said Syamsuddin.

On Monday, February 13, East Asian Muslim and Christian leaders wrapped up their two-day meeting in the Indonesian capital Jakarta by urging the UN to make a "universal declaration" strictly banning blasphemy.

Din Syamsuddin, leader of Indonesia's second largest Muslim organization, the Muhammadiyah, said the forum proposed the UN issue a declaration of "human responsibility" in order to prevent more examples of blasphemous or insulting acts toward religions, the Jakarta Post reported on Tuesday.

"I shared the idea during rounds of discussions with other religious leaders here, and I personally agree that the UN should issue a universal declaration of human responsibility, apart from the universal declaration of human rights," he told a news conference.

"Because having the freedom without responsibility could lead our civilization to absolute liberalism."

Din said the declaration would allow people and institutions to exercise freedom of expression, but also make them responsible in their actions.

Rev. Fr. Joseph Chusak Sirisut, director of the Bangkok-based religious and cultural research center in Saengtham College, said there was a similarly insulting cartoon when Pope Benedictus XVI was inaugurated last October.