Sep 28, 2012
Posted by Gregory Aftandilian
Egyptian President Mohammad Morsi used his
September 26 UN speech to lay out several
positions that tried to show that he is an
independent political figure, not beholden to
the United States, but his positions did not
signal any radical break from the past.
Concerning the controversial, anti-Islam film,
he tried to show he was the defender of the
faith and. while condemning the anti-American
violence that ensued, he also distanced himself
from President Obama's explanations of free
speech. Although the latter probably did
not go down well in U.S. policy circles, his
targeted audience in this instance was the
fundamentalist constituency back
home.
Morsi, as the first president in
modern Egyptian history from the once-banned
Muslim Brotherhood, wanted to use his speech to
the UN General Assembly to demonstrate that
Egypt is under new management. He
underscored that Egypt is now free from "the
contradictions of the bygone era," meaning the
Mubarak regime, and would base its policies on
"well-established values" and its "Arab and
Islamic spheres."
On the longstanding
Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Morsi reiterated
the standard Arab position in support of
Palestinian rights and independent
statehood. Although he used some terms
that are usually associated with Arab
intellectuals in their criticisms of
Israel--such as "colonization" and "alteration
in the identity of Occupied Jerusalem"--as
opposed to the more nuanced criticisms that
were usually applied during the Mubarak regime,
he reassured the international community (and
by implication, the United States and Israel),
that Egypt would continue to adhere to the
"international agreements" that it has signed,
meaning the Israeli-Egyptian peace
treaty. Morsi did not mention Israel by
name, and that omission was probably
deliberate, but his position on the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict was not
significantly different than that of the
previous regime.
On Syria, Morsi stuck
to the consensus among the Sunni Muslim
countries that the bloodshed must be stopped
and that the Syrian people must be given the
opportunity to "choose freely the regime that
best represents them." He underscored his
support for UN special representative
Al-Ibrahimi's mission to find a solution to the
crisis, and said Egypt would remain involved in
this endeavor because of its place in the Arab
and Islamic worlds.
He also emphasized
Egypt's African identity and suggested that
Egypt would to be active in helping to solve
problems near it, such as the Sudanese and
Somali crises. He called on the
international community to resolve the problems
between Sudan and South Sudan, and emphasized
that Khartoum "has not received the support it
deserves." Although this position
differed somewhat from the Mubarak regime,
which had a troubled relationship with Sudanese
regime, Morsi did not appear to shift Egypt's
position on Sudan in any dramatic
fashion.
On the issue of nuclear weapons
in the Middle East, Morsi struck very familiar
chords, reiterating Egypt's position that the
region should be free of weapons of mass
destruction, something that former Egyptian
foreign minister, Amre Moussa, spoke about in
the 1990s. In this way, he tried to
address several concerns--the Arab states'
worries about Iran's nuclear program and what
they see as the international community giving
Israel a free pass on the issue, while
reassuring Washington that Egypt is not in
favor of Iran developing a nuclear weapon or of
a nuclear arms race in the
region.
Morsi's assessment of the
fallout from the anti-Islam film was likely the
most controversial part of his speech in the
eyes of U.S. officials. After describing
the trend of what he called "Islamophobia," he
then indirectly referred to the film by stating
that the "obscenities recently released as part
of an organized campaign against Islamic
sanctities is unacceptable and requires a firm
stand...Egypt respects freedom of
expression. One that is not used to
incite hatred against anyone. One that is
not directed towards one specific religion or
culture...Not the freedom of expression that
deepens ignorance and disregards others."
This position was a direct response to
President Obama's UN speech the day before in
which the U.S. president told the international
body that the protection of free speech is
enshrined in the U.S. Constitution, and that
even though it protects highly offensive views,
any effort to restrict speech can lead us down
a dangerous, slippery slope. It seems
that Morsi wanted to make a cultural argument
against the U.S. position to appeal to Islamist
factions at home and within the broader Arab
world, saying, in essence, that whatever U.S.
arguments are made to protect free speech, the
denigration of Islam is against our laws and
values and will remain so. Morsi could
have argued otherwise, saying that he respects
the fact that a U.S. president cannot stop an
offensive film from being made in the United
States, but he probably calculated that such a
stance would cost him support among
fundamentalist supporters, especially when
Egypt's new parliamentary elections are only a
few months away. Nonetheless, Morsi did
not want to push this argument too far,
especially at a time when he needs U.S. support
to help Egypt''s troubled economy. Hence,
he made sure he added the sentence in his
speech: "we also stand firmly against the
use of violence in expressing objection to
these obscenities," as a way of mollifying his
U.S. critics.
The views expressed in this blog are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the Center for National Policy.
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