At the Weekly Standard, Nina Shea reports on two recent interfaith meetings and, like Ruden, defines the one-sided nature of the effort:

"As President Bush made clear in his remarks at the U.N. meeting, tolerance is understood in the West as respect for religious freedom. For the Muslim leaders in New York, tolerance means respect for religion itself, particularly Islam. As the astute Turkish political observer Ziya Meral pointed out, if Muslim leaders really wanted tolerance for different religious viewpoints, they would be holding similar discussions within their own societies. But no such discussions are going on."

Shea, director of the Hudson Institute's Center for Religious Freedom, focuses on efforts to have the United Nations pass a ban on speech considered defamatory toward Islam.

"This measure would aim to curb the freedom not only of Danish cartoonists but also of scholars, writers, dissidents, religious reformers, human rights activists, and anyone at all anywhere in the world who criticizes Islam."

As an example, she cites a recent case in Morocco. A discussion of the similarities between Islam and Christianity led to the banning of a magazine.