Morsi slams broad free speech view

UNITED NATIONS – Egypt’s recently elected President Mohamed Morsi on Wednesday rejected President Barack Obama’s view of free-speech rights and made plain his ambition to seize greater influence for the Arab world’s most populous country.

Morsi, in his debut speech to the U.N. General Assembly, said Egypt intended to lead the way in resolving Syria’s civil war, pressing the cause of Palestinians and defusing the threat of nuclear proliferation in the Middle East.

He also said that although his country now embraced democracy and human rights, it would not accept the categorical approach to free speech that Obama urged at the United Nations and would not tolerate insults to religion.

“Egypt respects freedom of expression,” he said, but “one that is not used to incite hatred against anyone. One that is not directed toward one specific religion or cult.”

He called on the United Nations to consider international action to crack down on speech that defames religions.

Morsi’s comments addressed a disagreement between Muslim and Western leaders that has surfaced this month since an American-made anti-Islamic video ignited protests and set off deadly attacks in nearly two dozen countries in the Muslim world. Muslim leaders have demanded that Western governments crack down on such expression, while Western governments have insisted they must allow full free-speech rights.

Obama, in his U.N. address Tuesday, pressed Muslim countries to accept the Western approach.

World leaders have been studying Morsi closely since the longtime Muslim Brotherhood member ascended to the presidency in June. The Obama administration has been concerned that Morsi might take a more assertive stand toward Israel than his predecessor, Hosni Mubarak, who was ousted last year in the “Arab spring” revolution.

Morsi said his “first issue” would be to press the cause of the Palestinians at a time when peace negotiations toward a Palestinian state appear dead in the water. He also called for a regional conference this year on nuclear proliferation in the Mideast and appeared to scold both Israel and Iran, condemning countries that don’t join the international nonproliferation treaty and signatories that don’t follow its rules.

Israel is widely known to have a nuclear arsenal, but it does not acknowledge the fact. Iran is a signatory of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty but has faced repeated demands from the U.N. Security Council to live up to its obligations.

Morsi said his government would continue pushing its plan to end the conflict in Syria in a manner that would give Syrians their choice of a new government “without the foreign military intervention that we all oppose.”