UN General Assembly convenes in New York:
Muslim leaders challenge Obama defence on anti-Islam film
* Hamid Karzai blasts ‘the
depravity of fanatics’
* Obama condemns ‘violence and
intolerance’
Obama said he could not
ban the video, reportedly made by Egyptian Copts, because of the US
Constitution which protects the right to free speech.
UNITED NATIONS: Muslim leaders demanded international action to stop
religious insults in a challenge to US President Barack Obama’s defense
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 and presidents and other heads of state said Western
nations must clamp down on “Islamophobia” following the storm over the
film which mocks the Prophet Mohammed.
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.” He called for “an
international instrument to effectively prevent incitement to hostility
or violence based on religions or beliefs.” King Abdullah II of Jordan,
a close US ally, spoke out against the film and the violence it sparked.
Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari condemned what he called the
“incitement of hate” against Muslims and demanded United Nations action.
“Although we can never condone violence, the international community
must not become silent observers and should criminalize such acts that
destroy the peace of the world and endanger world security by misusing
freedom of expression,” he told the assembly.
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 Egyptian
Copts, 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.
“The attacks of the last two weeks are not simply an assault on
America. They are also an assault on the very ideals upon which the
United Nations was founded - the notion that people can resolve their
differences peacefully,” he added.
Obama has sought a new start in relations with the Muslim world
during his first term, but the legacy of the wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan where US troops will remain for more than a year have been
hard to shake off.
Stewart Patrick, a specialist on international institutions for the
Council on Foreign Relations think-tank, said the film furor 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.” But beyond the
question of freedom of speech, some Muslim leaders also say the United
States has still not gone far enough to balance its relations with
Muslim nations.
Egypt’s President Mohamed Morsi said despite anti-US demonstrations
in Cairo that US support for his country and others that have seen Arab
Spring revolutions could be a chance for a mutual show of respect. Over
the past four decades, “Egyptian people see the blood of the
Palestinians being shed. And they see that the US administrations were
biased against the interests of the Palestinians. So a sort of hate and
sort of a worry rise out of that in Egypt and in the area,” Morsi said
in an interview with Charlie Rose on PBS television this week.
“The demonstrations were an expression of a high level of anger and a
rejection of what is happening,” added Morsi. “And the US embassy
represents the symbol of America as a people and government.”
Obama’s efforts, said the Egyptian leader, were “the opportunity to
take these worries, or this hate, out of the way and to build a new
relationship based on respect, communication.”
AFP
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