Justin's Political Corner

Barack Obama has drawn fire from the Christian right over his attempt to criticise Muslims who are offended by slander of the prophet Mohammed while desecrating other religions.

Right-wing critics turned on the president over his speech to the United Nations in which he sought to dampen the backlash against the anti-Muslim film that prompted violence across the Middle East earlier this month. They accused him of saying that the foundation of Christianity is itself a slander against Islam.

Obama told the UN that the modern world presents a unique challenge because “anyone with a cell phone can spread offensive views around the world with the click of a button”. He said the notion that the flow of information can be controlled is obsolete and so the question is how to respond to offensive material.

Obama told the UN that the modern world presents a unique challenge because “anyone with a cell phone can spread offensive views around the world with the click of a button”. He said the notion that the flow of information can be controlled is obsolete and so the question is how to respond to offensive material.

The president said that there is no justification for violence and the killing of innocents in response to an offending video or hate speech because that “empowers any individual who engages in such speech to create chaos around the world”.

“We empower the worst of us if that’s how we respond,” he said.

Obama returned to the theme later in the speech when he implicitly noted the hypocrisy of those who resort to violence because they believe their religion is offended while refusing to respect the beliefs of others. That’s when he upset some on the Christian right.

“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 in the images of Jesus Christ that are desecrated, or churches that are destroyed, or the Holocaust that is denied. Let us condemn incitement against Sufi Muslims and Shiite pilgrims,” he told the UN.

“It is an orthodox Christian belief that Mohammed is not a prophet,” wrote Erick Erickson, the editor of the conservative website Red State. “Actual Christians, as opposed to many of the supposed Christians put up by the mainstream media, believe that Christ is the only way to salvation. Believing that is slandering Mohammed.”

Erickson also saw a double standard in Obama condemning the slander of Mohammed while condemning only the desecration of the image of Christ.

“Note he says we cannot ‘slander the prophet of Islam’ but it’s only the image of Christ in the next sentence – not actually Christ himself desecrated. If this is so, why does Barack Obama’s government continue funding the National Endowment for the Arts, which funds Christ in piss, the Virgin Mary painted in dung, etc.?” he said.

h/t: The Raw Story