Freedom and Speech
I’ve been following the controversial regarding the case of “Freedom of Speech” and found it really interesting yet something vital is missing. Well, the concept can be summarised into the following statement: “No one should be persecuted for his/her opinion regarding whatever as we are free to criticise and offend others.”
Okay! What about defining “freedom” at first? I’ve modelled freedom before, over I-MAG, as a bird that has two wings, and flies within a certain medium, heading towards a final destination. Let me elaborate more on the terminology mentioned up:
- The two wings are sense and responsibly.
- The medium is the freewill of the people, and;
- The destination is the welfare of a certain community on the minor scale, and thus humanity on the major one.
Hence freedom itself isn’t the ultimate goal; rather it’s the right and righteous path for reaching such destination. Nevertheless, the critical point that has been fogged during such controversial is that criticising people’s acts is totally different from offending them in terms of what they believe in, regardless the race and religion.
Having said this, I do believe, as a Muslim, that neither inspecting the belief nor judging people’s intention is my ultimate business; it’s none. We should rather be concerned only about the acts, which are the practised actions that either can be right or wrong. Yet only the awareness of the civil society is capable of filtering the right acts from the wrong ones and this should be broadened and not suppressed.
Consequently, this explains why I criticised Slaman Rushdi’s Satanic Verses, Jyllands-Posten’s Muhammad Cartoons, Greet Wilders’ Fitna and stuff that not merely flux wrong acts committed by some Muslims with the ideology of Islam, but mainly portray this as ‘Islam’ and ‘Muhammad’, which make me always wonders why? And why people are only highlighting on this side and don’t shed lights over the other one?
The other side stats that the revelation of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) from Allah Almighty to Mankind is simply for urbanising Earth, such urbanisation require integration of people, and the Qur’an mentioned that:
There is no compulsion in religion [2:256]
In the light of this, my criticism for terrorism is harder, regardless whoever committed; not merely because being illegal act against people but mainly because this reflects the barrenness to produce effective opinions and thus they used a short-cut: kill them all! OOPS! How about that Islam denies that concept as it contradicts with its mission statement if I can use such term!
Woah! It’s neither Islam nor Muhammad’s fault then; rather it is ignorance. For that matter, I feel sorrow for those who are committing not only the generalising sin but also the mix sin between applications and ideologies, which is much bitter, as I mentioned in my published articles over I-MAG before.
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A blog that renders the perspective of a Muslim Egyptian guy living on planet Earth, who believes that Imagination is more important than knowledge, yet the possession of knowledge dose not kill the sense of wonder!
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November 3rd, 2008 08:40
I am a Muslim and I find your BLOG and thoughts very noble and inspiring.
Your views and thoughts are very much appreciated and a breath of fresh air.
I will summarize mine to say that I do believe in freedom of speech, and as you greatly showed from the Qur’an, that no one should be forced to follow a certain way or view.
However, it is generally understood in all societies that freedom of speech is not unlimited.
I think what frustrates many that have been demonized, not just Muslims but minorities and people of other faiths, is the hypocrisy when it comes to freedom of speech in certain countries.
Everyone understand that it is considered libel, to publish something false about a person or group of people, which damages their reputation, you can sue for that, and no one will accuse you of being against free speech. Eg, if someone spreads a message that you’re a war criminal,yet this is not true, but causes you harm and damages your reputation you have the right to take legal action.
I’m not sure when it comes to Muslims, why the first reaction of many is to accuse Muslims of being against free speech, especially when many things are being written about us as Muslims, and the origins of our religions that makes people hate us, much of which is completely untrue and not accepted by the academic world.
Another concern is that, if a person from a certain race or religion says something that is disliked, they could be arrested, yet if say a group like the KKK say the same thing and continues killing people, the government does nothing about this.
Why is it that people from another faith, can be part of the KKK and openly admit to persecuting people for their race and religion, and our governments do nothing to stop them, while innocent Muslims are often sent to jail without due cause?
Those are just a few of my thoughts. I also recognize there are so many great people of other faiths out there, who do feel the same way I do, and not everyone whether they are a Muslim, Christian, Jew or other faith are extremists. There is good in all people, but conversely many people are evil, and this evil is not limited to a single people or religion.
November 3rd, 2008 22:50
Enlightened: I’m very pleased with your insightful input that integrated with what I wrote.
The problem, my friend and brother, is not merely in people’s faith (whatever) but mainly is stereotyping and this is the case with Muslims, before 9/11 generally and after 9/11 especially.
It’s awful how the mass react regarding others who don’t share them the same believes either spiritually or socially, however history reveal that this attitude is common because they don’t take a pause to think about whether what they have perceived is this true or false!