Plea for help

Zardari's arguments against the anti-Islam film at UNGA need to be considered, but the issue remains more complex.

President Asif Ali Zardari’s speech to the 67th session of the UN General Assembly was a strong one. It raised issues that have, perhaps, not been thought about in sufficient depth by the international community. Certainly the points made by the president need to be considered. In an address where emotion punctuated every sentence, President Zardari appealed to the international community not to ignore the questions raised by the anti-Islam video — which had infuriated Muslims worldwide — and described the extent to which it had hurt feelings. He sought regulations to prevent the incitement of hatred, asserting, too, that hatred gave rise to extremism, terrorism and resultant destruction. He spoke, too, of the suffering caused within Pakistan because of terrorism, citing the death of small children in bomb blasts, and also that of his own wife.

President Zardari is certainly correct when he states that the incitement of hatred breeds violence. The issue at hand, when looked at from a global perspective, is however complex; it is not as simple as it may first seem. Whereas the US administration has itself described the video as derogatory, and acknowledged that it is hurtful, the basic, ingrained principle of the right to free speech, protected by law and tradition in the US, clashes, to at least some degree, with the president’s suggestion. Films, theatrical productions and other material that Christians condemn have after all been produced and displayed in the West. At the same time, however, there are laws in European nations which ban Jews from being caricaturised or degraded. Austria is one such country. Even in the US, speeches or films attacking persons on the basis of race are immensely controversial.

The matter is, then, a rather sensitive one. Yes, free speech needs to be protected; yes, in countries like ours, tolerance needs to be built. But perhaps, some kind of balance is also required. How this can be achieved is a tricky question; it cannot be decided easily. President Zardari’s speech does, however, need to be thought about at various levels, given our need to create a world where violence and extremism can be controlled.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 27^th, 2012.