If it wasn’t enough that Barack Obama has not been going after the First Amendment enough at the United Nations yesterday, Egyptian President and Muslim Brotherhood member Mohammed Morsi spoke in New York to lecture the United States on Freedom of Speech and guess which side he comes down on. That’s right, he wants to limit it too.
Morsi told the New York Times that his government would become more independent from the US. Good. That should mean we should stop sending them any foreign aid with our tax dollars. In fact, we should stop regardless of their independence.
“Successive American administrations essentially purchased with American taxpayer money the dislike, if not the hatred, of the peoples of the region,” he told the paper in the interview published late Saturday, drawing a clear distinction between the American government and the American people. Those administrations “have taken a very clear biased approach against something that (has) very strong emotional ties to the people of the region that is the issue of Palestine.”
Morsi spoke on Tuesday at the Clinton Global Initiative, along with GOP nominee Mitt Romney, who was introduced by former President Bill Clinton. He lectured America on free speech and just as Barack Obama did on Tuesday at the UN, Morsi said there should be laws that make it illegal to insult the prophet Mohammad.
Here’s what he had to say:
“Demonstrations and clashes recently broke out in a large number of Arab and Islamic countries in response to an incident in response to the defamation. We must acknowledge the importance of freedom of expression. We must also recognize that such freedom comes with responsibilities especially when it has serious implications for international peace.”
Now here’s the thing. Yesterday Obama said, “The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam.” I also pointed out, to be fair, that he continued to say, ““Yet to be credible, those who condemn that slander must also condemn the hate we see when the image of Jesus Christ is desecrated, churches are destroyed, or the Holocaust is denied. Let us condemn incitement against Sufi Muslims, and Shiite pilgrims. It is time to heed the words of Gandhi: “Intolerance is itself a form of violence and an obstacle to the growth of a true democratic spirit.” Together, we must work towards a world where we are strengthened by our differences, and not defined by them. That is what America embodies, and that is the vision we will support.”
Even before that section he declared,
The future must not belong to those who target Coptic Christians in Egypt – it must be claimed by those in Tahrir Square who chanted “Muslims, Christians, we are one.” The future must not belong to those who bully women – it must be shaped by girls who go to school, and those who stand for a world where our daughters can live their dreams just like our sons. The future must not belong to those corrupt few who steal a country’s resources – it must be won by the students and entrepreneurs; workers and business owners who seek a broader prosperity for all people. Those are the men and women that America stands with; theirs is the vision we will support.
The main issue here is that the term used by Obama was “slander” and the term used by Mohammed was “insult.” I received several comments that we shouldn’t slander people and I agree with that, but you must understand that to the Muslim a reference that Mohammad is a false prophet, a pedophile, a thief and possessed of demons is not slander, but insult despite its truth. That is what some want to limit and as a Christian, I cannot help but to speak out on the issue. In doing so, the Scriptures command me to ” be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear,” or as some translations render it “gentleness and respect.”
I am not calling for people to slander others. However, clearly Morsi has no business lecturing Americans about American law. He has a country that he is over. He should be concerned there. In fact, maybe he should try a little freedom of speech and freedom of religion there. Christians are being slaughtered in his own country right now by people who believe as he does.
I think the United States should tell him to get on an airplane and fly on back to Egypt and keep his mouth shut about what laws we have here in the US. As far as I’m concerned we have way too many as it is. We don’t need an Islamic radical telling us what laws we should be legislating.
Here’s the clip from Fox News:
