The United Nations General Assembly: Pakistan

WAIS attempts to get people of one nation to see how other countries view the world. The UN General Assembly should provide an excellent occasion to study this, since each speaker (usually the head of government) gives his country's view of the world scene. In fact, the hall was packed to hear the address by President Bush, which received ample publicity. After that the hall was usually half-empty, and the speakers got little or no publicity. Yet the viewpoints they presented were often sharply at odds with that of the US. Take the speech of the President of Pakistan, Pervez Musharraf. It was mostly the usual diatribe against India, which he accused of harboring terrorists and subjugating Kashmir. He avoided discussing Iraq. Instead he spoke of establishing in Pakistan an Islamic regime based on tolerance and justice. The implication was that Islam should not be blamed for terrorism and that Pakistan was promoting a modern Islam. His speech was probably received more favorably than that of President Bush in Islamic countries.

Ronald Hilton - 9/13/02