Posted on 09/25/2012 5:23:33 PM PDT by markomalley
Addressing the representatives of the United Nations General Assembly in a time of global crisis, President Barack Obama opted to legitimize the growing chorus of critics who condemn America’s provocative right of free speech. The president’s address to the world was anything but a full-throated defense of American values. It was, instead, an abundantly disappointing abdication of his responsibility to defend the cherished freedoms of the nation he leads.
Speaking to the assembled delegates of the nations of the world, Obama addressed the crisis in the Middle East – one ongoing since the publication of cartoons of the Prophet Mohamed in a Danish newspaper set the world on fire in 2006 – but recently exacerbated by a YouTube video that insults Islam and the religion’s prophet:
The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam. But to be credible, those who condemn that slander must also condemn the hate we see and the images of Jesus Christ that are desecrated or churches that are destroyed. Or the Holocaust that is denied.
This is not a clear and definitive defense of the principles enshrined in the First Amendment of the American Constitution. This is an equivalency between what Obama views as equally condemnable religious slanders committed by malefactors on all sides.
That moment did not call for equivocation. When throngs of frustrated Muslims crowd Arab streets calling for America to rethink its commitment to free speech, when foreign governments demand Washington act to imprison individuals who exercise their constitutional rights – however distasteful they may subjectively appear to some – and when American diplomatic officials are in fear for their life, the President of the United States was obliged to defend this country’s guiding principles. As if he was unaware, those principles are under immediate threat.
President Obama chose instead to offer an excuse for his fellow citizens’ behavior in this statement. He suggested that the future will be one where religious critiques must be curtailed, lest one fear for their personal safety. Indeed, that has been the experience of the filmmaker who made an anti-Islamic trailer. He has proven to be a useful punching bag for his government, sundry members of which were all too willing to pin violent unrest across the globe on his unrestrained and immodest exercise of his First Amendment rights.
Following protests across the Muslim world, Americans were treated to a debate about the future of the First Amendment at home in the press (the inherent irony of that condition was unfortunately lost amid the clamor of the self-righteous). “Should Anti-Islam Filmmaker Be Thrown in Jail,” asked a recent TIME Magazine column. That the body of that article consisted of more than the word “no” represents a devastating tragedy for those who revere, or at least are somewhat acquainted with, America’s founding principles.
Obama’s speech to the United Nations was a dereliction of duty. The president swore to protect and defend the Constitution, but the Obama’s address contained only the occasional, perfunctory gesture towards the importance of uninhibited political speech. The president failed Americans in that moment.
“Let us heed the words of Gandhi,” Obama continued. “Intolerance is itself a form of violence.”
The nation’s founders would be mortified by this defining down of violence and the legitimization of stifled speech contained within this supposedly enlightened statement. The American people should be deeply concerned about a future governed by the principles voiced in Obama’s address.
It's pretty bad when even Mediaite rags on him.
Hey Obama, know why there are no muslims on Star Trek?
It’s set in the FUTURE.
The future should not belong to The One who slanders Americans for political gain. May he go down utterly, forsaken by all and driven from the land.
Love it! Can I borrow it?
Mohammed was a child rapist.
It isn’t slander if it is true.
OBAMA/SOETORO,” In the wake of 9/11, my meetings with Arab and Pakistani Americans.. I WILL STAND WITH THEM should the political winds shift in an ugly direction.”
Still waiting for someone to point out what is false in the film.
Memo to Obama, 75% of the Muslims cannot read. They get the word of Alah just like it was in Latin.
They hate jews because someone told them too. They hate christian because someone told them about the crusades.
That joke has been out there for awhile and is in the public domain. If I recall correctly, somebody came up with it on September 12, 2001.
Well, that's it for me, then. I slander that pig-fart of a "prophet" all day long and in my sleep.
What should I do, oh wondrous boy king of the news media? Go cut my head off with a knife?
I'm wondering why it is still OK to slander Jesus Christ (Piss Christ, The Last Temptation of Christ, etc.).
Well, he has recognized mohammed as the prophet, all that remains for him is to acknowledge that there is no god but allah.
The future must not belong to those that pander to the prophety.
You meant to tell me this guy STILL hasn’t been impeached??? Why not?
FUNNY :)
All this “Future belongs to...” reminds me of the final(?)
scene in Cabaret...Tomorrow belongs to me.. as the Nazi
troops are marching in.
he always uses such meaningless phrases. I suppose its
all his followers understand.
Yeah, it’s kinda old but still...
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