New York  - More than 100 non-governmental organizations on Thursday protested attempts by some governments to push through a United Nations resolution to protect religion from defamation.

Groups that included UN Watch and the Anti-Defamation League warned that if the discussion leads to a binding UN resolution, it could give states more reasons to clamp down even further on human rights and freedom of expression.

The draft resolution before the UN General Assembly's human rights committee was put forward by Syria, Venezuela and Belarus and asks the UN to oppose the "negative stereotyping of religions."

The draft expresses "deep concern" that racial and religious profiling have continued against certain groups of people and that Muslim minorities remain the target of attacks following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks against the United States.

The proposal revived memories of the violent reactions, embassy burnings and boycotts across the Islamic world over the 2005 Danish cartoons that satirized Islam's Prophet Mohammed. While Muslim leaders demanded that western governments censor such offenses, British and French officials defended freedom of speech and expression as the foundations of democracy.

Hillel Heuer, executive director of UN Watch, a Geneva-based human rights group, Thursday called the draft proposal "the latest salvo in a pervasive campaign waged by Islamic states at the UN to declare that the primary victim of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks was Islam."

"In fact, the victims were some 3,000 Americans and others, and those who perpetrated the mass murder acted in the name of a radical Islamist ideology," Neuer said in a statement.

The draft resolution would require the UN to oppose "manifestations of intolerance and discrimination in matters of religions or belief." It would condemn "all acts of psychological and physical violence and assaults" on people on the basis of their religion or belief.

NGOs from 20 countries joined the protest, including Freedom House, the Center for Democracy and Human Rights in Saudi Arabia and the American Jewish Congress.

They noted that existing international legal instruments already dealt with problems arising from discrimination, personal defamation and incitement, and did so in ways that did not violate freedom of expression and religion.

A new UN legal mechanism would invite restrictive governments to punish peaceful debate about political and religious beliefs and ideas, the NGOs warned. New laws against blasphemy would be encouraged, they said.

Freedom House said such a UN resolution would be "incompatible with the fundamental freedoms of individuals to freely exercise and peacefully express their thoughts, ideas and beliefs."

"It is vitally important for governments to combat violence motivated by bias and hatred and to encourage respectful speech and civil dialogue, while at the same time affirming that freedoms of expression and freedom of thought, conscience and religion, are integral to the health of free societies and the dignity of the human person," the NGOs said in a joint statement.

The US Commission on International Religious Freedom in Washington called the UN debate a "dangerous" idea backed by the Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC). (dpa)