Uproar over anti-Islam film: Muslim leaders challenge Obama defence
Muslim leaders demanded international action to stop religious insults in a challenge to US President Barack Obama’s defence of freedom of expression at the UN General Assembly.
Obama made a strong condemnation of “violence and intolerance” in his speech at the UN headquarters on Tuesday. He said world leaders had a duty to speak out against the deadly attacks on Americans in the past two weeks caused by an anti-Islam film made in the United States.
But Muslim kings, presidents and other heads of state said Western nations must clamp down on “Islamophobia” following the storm over the anti-Islam film.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono of Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation, said the film was another “ugly face” of religious defamation. Yudhoyono quoted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as saying that “everyone must observe morality and public order” and commented: “Freedom of expression is therefore not absolute.”
Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai condemned “the depravity of fanatics” who made the “Innocence of Muslims” film which set off the storm. “The menace of Islamophobia is a worrying phenomenon that threatens peace and co-existence,” he added in his address to the General Assembly.
Obama said he could not ban the video, reportedly made by an Egyptian Copt, because of the US Constitution which protects the right to free speech.
“As president of our country, and commander-in-chief of our military, I accept that people are going to call me awful things every day, and I will always defend their right to do so,” Obama told leaders at the UN summit.
Stewart Patrick, a specialist on international institutions for the Council on Foreign Relations think-tank, said the film furore had “exposed a huge fault line regarding the balance between free speech, which obviously is healthier in the United States, and the defamation of religion, which is really a red line for many people.”
Egypt’s President Mohamed Morsi said despite anti-US demonstrations in Cairo, US support for his country and others that have seen Arab Spring revolutions could be a chance for a mutual show of respect.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 27th, 2012.
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@Graham: Just because you are "white" does not mean you represent the views of the west. It is better you caveat your views as that of Marxist liberal, so that people can see you for what you are.
You still see long lines of Muslims trying to get into the USA and nobody is packing up and leaving --- how does that jive with the rampant Islamophobia these guys are complaining about.
Muslims leads demand international action for hurting religious feelings ... . Muslims and their leaders hardly condemn killing of innocent people by Islamic terrorists around the globe. . Many treat action against terrorists by the western countries as "war against Islam or muslims". Many countries openly harbor terrorists and provide safe heavens, training and also use their own establishment and judiciary to protect them. . Islamic nation do not demand action against killers of innocent people but use UN to demand action against hurt feelings ! . . . . .
Western nations must clamp down on “Islamophobia” following the storm over the anti-Islam film. . After Muslim societies clamp down NonIslamophobia. Pehle aap.
forcible conversion of Hindu women in Pakistan is not a serious issue for these Muslim "leaders", I guess.