Wednesday, February 08, 2006 [ 8:31 PM ] ;
0 repliesThe cartoons about Prophet Mohammed, published in Denmark last year, republished again later in Norway, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Holland and New Zealand later caused a wave of fury throughout the muslim world.
The countries, newspapers, have used the ideal, "Freedom of Speech" to defend what they did, obstinately sticking to their stand that what they did was right. Governments have refused to apologize, pointing to the newspapers as a separate entity, outside government control, and therefore it was not possible for a separate party to apologize on their behalf. This I should ask, does not prevent you from taking a stand against what the newspapers did correct? The fact that some governments showed their reluctance to condemn these actions and even supporting them showed what in fact, they really thought about these cartoons.
What shocked me was that the fact that these people do not see the fact that what they have done was wrong. Isnt this in a sense defamation against the Muslims? George Bush has even sided with the Danish, saying that America will give its "support and solidarity" over the violence sparked by caricatures of the Prophet.
At least the editor that first published these "cartoons" had apologized for his actions, stating that he would not have published the caricatures if he had known about the consequences. It is a little incongruous that the other newspapers and even governments insist on using Freedom of Speech to defend what they have done, consequences be damned, as the freedom gives them the right to say what they want, what they did with the cartoons was justifiable, because they already have the right to do it.
Some people just do not get it, saying that they've been publishing cartoons about their own religions, depicting Christ, and also of some royalty, like the Queen of England, and without causing any outrage. The fact that if you do not take your own religion seriously and treat it with respect, why assume other people will do the same thing with you as well? There are others in this world, who respect, love their religions and sometimes, even value it above their lives.
There is must be a balance between the overall benefit and the overall harm of free speech to society. As the famed United States jurist Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr wrote: "The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man falsely shouting fire in a theatre and causing a panic."
Freedome of Speech is a privilege given onto you by the governments, so much so that you all have come to see it as a right. It is NOT an excuse, for some of your pathetic actions. To bring it onto a personal level, what if I had depicting your mom as a whore, fucking every man that came along till she got you as her illegitamate kid? Surely you shouldn't get angry, because I am only exercising my right of freedom of speech.
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