OBAMA: "It is time to marginalize those who, even when not resorting to violence, use hatred of America, or the West, or Israel as the central organizing principle of politics," Obama said. "For that only gives cover, and sometimes makes an excuse, for those who resort to violence."

U.S. President Barack Obama challenged world leaders to tackle the recent violence rippling across the Muslim world, calling it “not simply an assault on America” but an attack “on the very ideals upon which the United Nations was founded.”

U.S. President Barack Obama  addresses the 67th United Nations General Assembly at the U.N. headquarters in New York
(Mike Segar/Reuters) 

 http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/obama-warns-u-must-iran-152753460--election.html

Obama denounced an anti-Islam video on the Internet that has partly fueled violent demonstrations throughout the Muslim world, calling the film "crude and disgusting." But he explained that he could not simply ban it—and scolded those who denounce anti-Muslim speech but stay quiet when the target is Christianity.

"The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam. But to be credible, those who condemn that slander must also condemn the hate we see in the image of Jesus Christ that are desecrated, churches are destroyed, or the Holocaust is denied," he said, in an apparent reference to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

"It is time to marginalize those who, even when not resorting to violence, use hatred of America, or the West, or Israel as the central organizing principle of politics," Obama said. "For that only gives cover, and sometimes makes an excuse, for those who resort to violence."

Obama noted that freedom of speech means he can condemn, but not ban, the video. "As president of our country, and commander-in-chief of our military, I accept that people are going to call me awful things every day," he said, drawing laughter from the audience of dignitaries. "And I will always defend their right to do so." And he invited the Muslim world to draw inspiration from America's protections for freedom of speech and religion.

"We do so because in a diverse society, efforts to restrict speech can become a tool to silence critics, or oppress minorities," he said. "We do so because given the power of faith in our lives, and the passion that religious differences can inflame, the strongest weapon against hateful speech is not repression, it is more speech—the voices of tolerance that rally against bigotry and blasphemy, and lift up the values of understanding and mutual respect."

Obama also paid tribute to the slain U.S. Ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens, killed along with three colleagues in what his administration has designated a terrorist attack on the anniversary of 9/11.

Stevens "embodied the best of America," the president said. "Today, we must reaffirm that our future will be determined by people like Chris Stevens, and not by his killers."

Obama also delivered the kind of vigorous defense of his foreign policy that would not be out of place in his stump speech.

"The war in Iraq is over, American troops have come home. We have begun a transition in Afghanistan, and America and our allies will end our war on schedule in 2014," he said. "Al Qaeda has been weakened and Osama bin Laden is no more."

Images of anti-American riots—and the dramatic assault on the U.S. compound in Benghazi—have helped degrade Obama's once-imposing advantage over Romney on foreign policy.