Forget the Vatican’s hatred of Mohamed. Forget the Inquisitions and the Crusades. Islam and the Vatican can now finally step up and be good friends after all these centuries. So long as they have someone else to religiously persecute and kill, they can now be good friends at the UN…

Proposed UN declaration may provoke Muslim states

James Reinl, United Nations Correspondent

NEW YORK // Islamic governments are expected to join with the Vatican in protesting against a French-backed declaration in the UN General Assembly that calls for the decriminalisation of homosexuality worldwide.

Rama Yade, France’s secretary of state for human rights, will visit Manhattan this week to throw her weight behind a statement supported by dozens of nations that blasts the outlawing of certain types of sexual behaviour.

The 13-point declaration urges states “to ensure that sexual orientation or gender identity may under no circumstances be the basis for criminal penalties, in particular executions, arrests or detention”. (read more)

[PHOTO: People stage a protest in St Peter’s Square in Rome earlier this month against the Vatican’s opposition to a proposed United Nations declaration that would call for the decriminalisation of same-gender relationships. Andreas Solaro / AFP]