Even lawmakers who support engaging with Pakistan were left shaking their heads this week after that country’s leader demanded that the United Nations make blasphemy illegal.
The disconnect between how the U.S. and Pakistan view the world won on full display in speeches by the two countries leaders, and it wasn’t lost on U.S. lawmakers who have long called for defunding aid to Pakistan.
As a result, it could become tougher for the administration to justify support for the strategically vital country.
“The foreign aid we give to Pakistan should be dependent upon their actions as a U.S. ally, not based on a speech,” Senate Foreign Relations Committee member Mike Lee (R-Utah) told The Hill in a statement. “That said, freedom of speech is a fundamental value upon which our nation is based and not one that is in danger of being altered anytime soon.”
The State Department for its part downplays any notion of a clash of values between the two countries. U.S. officials prefer to focus on Pakistan's effective protection of the U.S. embassy and improved cooperation in the war on terrorism, notably since the reopening of NATO supply routes to Afghanistan earlier this year.
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Zardari is probably playing to the Islamic religious bigot community in Pakistan, which has supported a ridiculous blasphemy law that has been used to discriminate against Christians. Pakistan is a country that is too much in the thrall of the illiterate religious bigots.
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