Remember this move by the so-called UN Human Rights Council to get global action against ‘negative stereotyping of religions’?

The only question is, what does it mean in practice?

As far as I know, a Resolution by the Human Rights Council means nothing at all in itself in formal legal terms, unless over time it mysteriously gets absorbed into mainstream international law and practice.

That has not stopped Eugene Volokh from wondering aloud about a possible US Administration response to the following question from some foreign official, for instance from a conservative Muslim country:

Here you are urging all countries to take effective measures to address and combat any advocacy of religious hatred that constitutes incitement to hostility.

And yet in your own country there are prominent speakers — radio talk show hosts, columnists, bloggers, and the like — are arguing that our brand of supposedly ‘extremist’ Islam is evil, dangerous, and terrorist-coddling.

That sounds to us like advocacy of religious hatred, and it’s certainly incitement to hostility. What are you going to do about it?

See the seven possible replies he identifies.

Nice work.