This is the week of speeches, at a time when words can be fatal.
Rarely have so many crucial issues in the Middle East – including the region’s relationship with the United States and other Western Liberal democracies – been so dangerously balanced just as leaders make their annual New York trek.
Syria is in a civil war and President Bashar al-Assad’s air force is bombing Aleppo. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is making the case for military strikes – soon – to stop Iran from getting nuclear weapons.
Also troubling is the ignitable tension between the West and much of the Muslim world, sparked by a few provocateurs, but killing at least 51. The protests over a low-budget anti-Islam video showed how easily the words of a few individuals in the West can stoke violent anger in the streets of the Middle East – and a new set of provocative caricatures published by a French magazine made Western nations fear they might be only a few words away from becoming targets. It’s a clash between freedom of expression and outrage at insults to religious convictions.
The new Middle East, the one that rose from the hopes of the Arab Spring, has struggled with the conundrum of how to respond. Egypt’s leaders, for example, have promised to protect foreigners, but prosecutors there have also issued arrest warrants for people allegedly involved in the video. Now Egypt’s democratically elected president, Mohamed Morsi, will make his global-stage debut at the UN.
Read more: Troubling tensions cloud United Nations - The Globe and Mail
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