Anti-Islam film violates freedom of speech: Obama - India News and Travel Times Provides India-centric and other News and Features

President Barack Obama has said that the anti-Islam film cannot be banned as the First Amendment law of the Constitution protects freedom of speech. Obama, while addressing the 67th session of the United Nations General Assembly on Monday, however, termed the sacrilegious film "crude and disgusting". He reiterated that his government had nothing to do with the movie, and insisted that there was no speech that justified violence. According to a report in the Express Tribune, Obama was quoted, as saying: "There are no words that excuse the killing of innocents. There is no video that justifies an attack on an embassy. There is no slander that provides an excuse for people to burn a restaurant in Lebanon , or destroy a school in Tunis , or cause death and destruction in Pakistan ." "I believe its message must be rejected by all who respect our common humanity. It is an insult not only to Muslims, but to America as well - for as the city outside these walls makes clear, we are a country that has welcomed people of every race and religion," he added. "We are home to Muslims who worship across our country. We not only respect the freedom of religion - we have laws that protect individuals from being harmed because of how they look or what they believe. We understand why people take offense to this video because millions of our citizens are among them," he said. Obama also warned that in 2012, "when anyone with a cell phone can spread offensive views around the world with the click of a button, the notion that we can control the flow of information is obsolete". "The question, then, is how we respond. And on this, we must agree that there is no speech that justifies mindless violence. There are no words that excuse the killing of innocents," Obama said. He also vowed to hunt down those behind the "attack on America " in Libya that claimed the life of Ambassador J.Christopher Stevens. "The attacks on our civilians in Benghazi were attacks on America . There should be no doubt that we will be relentless in tracking down the killers and bringing them to justice. We must affirm that our future will be determined by people like Chris Stevens, and not by his killers. Today, we must declare that this violence and intolerance has no place among our United Nations," he further said.