JIM MIDDLETON: What do you make of the demands from a number of Muslim leaders, not just president Asif Ali Zardari but also president Yudhoyono of Indonesia, notably, for United Nations action to outlaw blasphemy globally, which has emerged in the wake of this video? VALI NASR: First of all, it shows that still many leaders in the Muslim world take the United Nations more seriously than many in the West do. And they still look at United Nations resolutions as if they will have a force of international law, and it can regulate public opinion or press freedom internationally. But beyond that, it suggests that they all are seeing a tremendous amount of pressure from their own publics to do something. And that the anger that we are seeing in the Muslim world is politically serious, it can be particularly dangerous to elected leaders like those of Pakistan and Indonesia, and they have to be seen to be doing something. JIM MIDDLETON: It does also suggest, does it not, a very deep philosophical divide. President Obama thought the threat to free speech entailed in this push, sufficiently serious to devote a substantial section of his United Nations speech to the subject. There?s a very deep division here, isn't there? VALI NASR: Well, yes, but also president Obama could not be doing otherwise in an election year, given that free speech is of great importance to the American public opinion, and it is a very cherished value in the West.