President Obama was expected to discuss the anti-Islam YouTube film during his UN speech today, and he didn’t disappoint. He devoted over 1,000 words to the topic, much of which had already been said repeatedly by the White House, the State Department, UN Ambassador Susan Rice and government-sponsored commercials in Pakistan:
At times, the conflicts arise along the fault lines of race or tribe, and often they arise from the difficulties of reconciling tradition and faith with the diversity and interdependence of the modern world. In every country, there are those who find different religious beliefs threatening. In every culture, those who love freedom for themselves must ask themselves how much they’re willing to tolerate freedom for others. And that is what we saw play out in the last two weeks, where a crude and disgusting video sparked outrage throughout the Muslim world. Now, I have made it clear that the United States government had nothing to do with this video, and I believe its message must be rejected by all who respect our common humanity. It is an insult not only to Muslims, but to America as well.
For as the city outside these walls makes clear, we are a country that has welcomed people of every race and every faith. We are home to Muslims who worship across our country. We not only respect the freedom of religion, we have laws that protect individuals from being harmed because of how they look or what they believe.
We understand why people take offense to this video because millions of our citizens are among them. I know there are some who ask why don’t we just ban such a video. The answer is enshrined in our laws. Our Constitution protects the right to practice free speech.
Obama did defend the First Amendment rights of “those who slander the prophet of Islam” in the speech, as well — but it came off as more as an explanation of why we haven’t banned the video or locked up the video producer than anything else. As I’ve written before, there’s no problem with Obama condemning the film, as any reasonable person should. But this is a matter of emphasis. Obama had a global platform, and he could have used it to primarily call out the Islamist leaders who encouraged the violence and reaffirm American resolve against the terror-supporters who raised Salafist flags above our embassies.
If no insulting video can justify violence, as Obama said during his speech, then why spend so much time apologizing for it? Why take paragraphs to explain that the U.S. does not support or agree with it? If the film is not responsible for the riots, then issue a press release criticizing it, and that should be the end of story.
Obama mainly just reheated the same old lines his administration has been saying for weeks, but he also threw some of his trademark cliches and straw men into the mix:
It is time to marginalize those who, even when not directly resorting to violence, use hatred of America or the West or Israel as the central organizing principle of politics, for that only gives cover and sometimes makes an excuse for those who do resort to violence. That brand of politics, one that pits East against West and South against North, Muslims against Christians and Hindu and Jews, can’t deliver on the promise of freedom.
To the youth, it offers only false hope. Burning an American flag does nothing to provide a child an education. Smashing apart a restaurant does not fill an empty stomach. Attacking an embassy won’t create a single job. That brand of politics only makes it harder to achieve what we must do together, educating our children and creating the opportunities that they deserve, protecting human rights and extending democracy’s promise.
The above may be the most meaningless paragraph of all time. Burning an American flag doesn’t provide children with education? Really? Those rioters in Pakistan must feel pretty foolish to learn they’ve been going about their childhood education advocacy all wrong. Good thing President Obama came out to set them straight.
This is Obama’s fundamental error. The mobs burning our embassies and attacking police are not seeking freedom, or gender equality or jobs. They are seeking the destruction of America and the Western world. We have no reason to apologize to them, nor is it prudent to do so. Not only are they our enemies, they’re the enemies of the liberals we’re supposed to be supporting in these countries. They’re the people who killed Salman Taseer and Shahbaz Bhatti, threw acid at schoolgirls in Afghanistan, and burned Coptic churches in Egypt. They don’t care about “creating opportunities,” “protecting human rights,” and “extending democracy’s promise.” Quite the opposite, actually.
This idiot makes Sir Robin of Monty Python fame look like a fearless bunny-slayer! It just doesn't get much more pathetic than this…
Really? This is how we’ve fallen? We cheer the President of the USA actually getting in front on an international body chartered to protect freedom and defending freedom of speech? We’re debating this point and getting our arguments ready to confront the academic leftists and Islamic nuts who live among us underneath the very same laws that permit them to openly call for my extermination……and we’re thrilled? n nI quit. Let’s melt down the Liberty Bell on a fire kindled by every word printed since the Enlightenment.
Wow, Alana, some bite in those last two paragraphs of yours! n nAt first, when I read your excerpt of the Obama's speech, I thought, not bad, pretty good boilerplate UN speech at least as far as the last couple of his paragraphs you quoted went. I even liked that when he talked about the violence, it seemed it was Muslim vs everyone else (Christians, Jews, Hindus), which is of course accurate. The emphasis on the video was wrong and ridiculous. n nBut then, your last couple of paragraphs pointing out the dangerous and misguided banality of what he said cut right through and turned me 180 degrees.
BO said in Turkey "“Although…we have a large Christian population, we do not consider ourselves a Christian nation, or a Jewish nation, or a Muslim nation. We consider ourselves a nation of citizens who are bound by ideals and a set of values.” nI hope all you libs take those rose colored glasses off. This is the most important election in the history of the USA. We need to get our country back on track and start healing from all the damage BO has done. We need a true American loving president. I for one have had enough of this socialistic, American hating narcissus.
It is kind of ridiculous. n nIf a group of people really wanted to, they could keep Obama hopping by burning a Koran in a different state every day. n nHe'd be apologizing non stop. The downside is more flag burning and bristling beards in the Muslim world. The upside is the Obama would have less time to make bad decisions.
"He'd be apologizing non stop." n nNow that would be awesomely funny to watch!! Highly disrespectful, but funny!
I just watched/listened to Obama's UN speech, and, yes, he blew a global podium opportunity to NOT make the US Constitution an exercise in moral equivalency. n nBut, at least he specifically mentioned Egypt's Coptic Christians. Some of them must live in a swing state that is not New Jersey or New York, because, those are not official swing states?
It's not the job of the President to tell us we must respect the "Prophet of Islam."
My cousin Benjy went to summer camp in the eighth grade with "the Prophet of Islam" aka "The Prophet" aka "Jug Ears" (ok ok, only behind his back). Benjy said he had a chip on his shoulder a mile long and didn't want to mix with the other kids at first but eventually got into the groove and even started up small camp stoner "posse" that called themselves the Choom Gang… n noh, sorry, wrong prophet.
Alana, I would actually go further than you do on this — I fear he is placing legitimate criticism of Islam as the equal of the worst of the Islamic terrorism. The call to "marginalize" goes both ways even though the flip side is just implied there, I fear he is calling for the marginalization, if not criminalization, of anyone who says anything offensive to Islam. n nAnd then if we should decide to reign in a bit of the largess that we give to these folks in Foreign Aid, well he is already answering that too…
The quotes sound like he's addressing his base (here in America). I suppose he was. At best his lecture got elite Dems nodding along that everybody just needs to love everybody more and, gosh darn, but he's sorry.
it's funny, but over at whitehousedossier.com, the usually reliably snarky Keith Koffler is giving Obama thumbs up for the UN speech. n nI, OTOH, am not impressed.
Does this mean we have to shelve our latest project "Debbie Does the Prophet"? It's done very tastefully, high production values, fully worthy of last year's "Deep Prophet". We could rework the subtitles. n n
Can Barry stop giving these interminable bar mitzvah speeches? We get it, today you're a fountain pen.
nThere was no reason to bring up that video again, no reason… These clowns need to stop talking about that video that no one has seen. n n
The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution itself are both utopian, and both over 200 years old. But unlike other utopias, the one our forefathers embraced works. nIt has an ingenious mechanism to revitalize its institutions: Freedom of speech. nAs John Stuart Mill explained, when a society allows its citizens to question its government, its values and its most sacred beliefs, the examination finds errors and things for improvement. nBut even when no correction at all is needed, the challenge in itself works miracles — it forces us to defend them. nIf things prove fine after such "stress test," we learn that we are on the right track. Merely knowing this wipes away uncertainty and replaces it with life and vigor. nSuch is the hidden benefit of open debate — and the reason why institutions elsewhere stagnate and die. nAnd no one rushes to save them because people have forgotten long before why they are there in the first place. This is the grave danger John Mill warned us about. nThe fathers of this country gave heed to his words. nPerhaps the fathers of new democracies should do the same.