Freedom of Speech in America and the anti-Islam Movie

[The_Jinx]

Re: Freedom of Speech in America and the anti-Islam Movie

@CENTCOM

We understand the anger stemming from the anti-Islam film. In his speech Tuesday to the UN, President Obama described the video ‘Innocence of Muslims’ as “crude and disgusting” and an insult “not only to Muslims, but to America as well.” There is no doubt that many Americans feel this way.

It’s important to understand that this was a low-budget, amateurish film produced by an individual with private funding, and that individuals in the U.S. are not required to register with a government agency before writing and publishing a book or producing a film. As Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said on several occasions, “Let me state very clearly, and I hope it is obvious, that the United States government had absolutely nothing to do with this video.”

Of equal importance is what Secretary Clinton went on to say: “We absolutely reject its content and message. America’s commitment to religious tolerance goes back to the very beginning of our nation, and as you know, we are home to people of all religions, many of whom came to this country seeking the right to exercise their own religion, including of course, millions of Muslims, and we have the greatest respect for people of faith.”

Many users on various social forums throughout the Muslim world have wondered in recent weeks why the U.S. didn’t simply ban the video. President Obama addressed this question in Tuesday’s speech at the UN, saying, “The answer is enshrined in our laws: Our Constitution protects the right to free speech. Here in the United States, countless publications provoke offense. Like me, the majority of Americans are Christian, and yet we do not ban blasphemy against our most sacred beliefs. 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.”

We understand that there are different views around the world about the outer limits of free speech. This is well and good – in fact, it is largely because there is *value *in differing opinions that we have laws protecting free speech. But surely we can agree that violence in response to speech is not acceptable.

Capt. Joseph Kreidel
DET-United States Central Command
www.centcom.mil/ur

Freedom of Speech is a biased excuse behind all this. Violence that happened either in retaliation by the uneducated (Islamically uneducated, that is) or by those who chose to use the opportunity to defame Islam through violence has no place in the religion of Islam.

There is nothing that I will buy from this post of yours Capt.

US officials including Hillary Clinton have got it ALL wrong. They failed to distinguish the Freedom of Speech in constitution with Hate Speech. Hate speech, where this despicable 15 minutes of movie fall under. Sadly, what was supposed to be a 2-minute fame stunt, turned out to be a center of attention.

There are laws protecting Anti-Semitism or denial of Holocaust. Why the bias against the most beloved person to Muslims even more beloved than a person’s own family and own life?

US stand on this issue is a clear depiction of ignorance to the culture of Muslims in any civilization of world where respect of All Prophets (including Jesus, Moses, Noah, Abraham, Adam etc.) is different than the respect given in US media.

Respect given to Jesus in US media suggests that while people will believe that Jesus is their savior but at the same time they mock and laugh at him by the jokes made by David Letterman on the possibility of Jesus having a wife. That’s utter disrespect in our views and would make Jesus sad himself. How can one claim and expect of getting saved by the one he mocks himself?