Obama also downplayed the potential role of the U.S. military in promoting freedom. “The war in Iraq is over, and our troops have come home… America and our allies will end our war [in Afghanistan] on schedule in 2014,” he said.
Obama also blamed the recent riots and attacks in the Middle East on Westerners, not on the competing anti-Western Islamist groups that his 2009 “New Beginnings” policy helped get into power.
Over the last few weeks, “a crude and disgusting [California-produced] video sparked outrage throughout the Muslim world… its message must be rejected by all who respect our common humanity,” he declared.
Obama did defend the United State’s First Amendment for the first time since a Sept. 13 CBS interview.
“Our Constitution protects the right to practice free speech,” he said. “Here in the United States, countless publications provoke offense… the majority of Americans are Christian, and yet we do not ban blasphemy against our most sacred beliefs,” he said.
However, he also used his high-profile role to echo Islamists’ condemnation of the little-seen video, which is sharply critical of Islam and its reputed prophet, Mohammad.
“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,”he said. “It is an insult not only to Muslims, but to America.”
“The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam,” he insisted.
After backing their criticism of the video, Obama then asked Islamists — including some in the audience, such as the new Islamist president of Egypt — to heed the advice of Mohandas Gandhi, a Hindu religious leader who helped lead Indian after 1948.
“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,’” said Obama.
Islamists believe Hindus are inferior to Christians, and give them few or no legal rights in Islamist societies.
