Pakistan banned facebook and youtube for blasphemous materials. Facebook had a page with title-’Draw Muhammad Day’ which made Pakistan court ban facebook. Later it banned youtube too , citing blasphemous videos as reason.
The facebook page has sparked protest by Muslims all across the globe while Pakistan being only country (as of now) to have banned this site.
This has sparked debate of freedom of speech v/s religious sentiments. Does freedom of speech gives license to hurt sentiments of people who believe in their faith and get offended by it?. Does being believer in one’s own faith give license to threaten anyone?
Let us first see various incidents where people were killed or death threat were either made or people were dragged to court
because of hurt of religious sentiments :
1) M.F.Hussain :
He drew nude paintings of hindu god and goddess in late 70s but controversy erupted in early 90s. VHP and right wing group cried foul and M F Hussain was dragged to the court.His house was attacked by bajrang dal and art works were vandalised.His london exhibition was forced to be called off due to protest. Later M.F.Hussain took citizenship of qatar.
2) Salman Rushdie:
He wrote satanic verses which created major outrage in muslim world. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued fatwa for executing salman rushdie. Fatwa still stands and attempts to kill him have been made unsuccessfully. Twice bombs exploded pre maturely killing attackers and salman rushdie survived. While salman has survived few people associated with the book have been killed . Japanese translator of the book was stabbed to death in 1991 , while Italian translator too was stabbed but he survived the attempt
3) Taslima Nasrin :
Taslim nasrin is an doctor turned author who sparked controversy by her book. She has been critical of islam in particular and religion is general. She was forced to leave Bangladesh and lived in exile before entering India. Hardline Muslim groups in India opposed her stay . She was even almost physically attacked by Hyderabad based political party workers . She was later shifted to secret location and finally she moved to Europe.
4) Danish Cartoon :
Series of cartoons published in danish daily sparked controversy in the Islamic world. Attempt to kill the cartoonist was discovered , owing to which cartoonist is under police protection. Latest in the saga was name of jihad jane who was arrested
in USA . Even pakistani born , american citizen headley has discussion with extremist in Pakistan regarding the cartoonist.
5) Van Gogh :
A severe critic of Islam , van gogh was murdered by Mohammed Bouyeri . Van was shot eight times and stabbed twice. Van was Dutch film director, film producer, columnist, author and actor.Van Gogh worked with Somali-born writer Ayaan Hirsi Ali to produce the film Submission, which was critical of the treatment of women in Islam.
Coming to religious sentiments. What is offensive and what is not offensive differs from person to person. Now M.F.Hussain painting might not be offensive for those who don’t prescribe to Hindu religion , it might not be offensive for some Hindus too but it was offensive for many Hindus. Same way I not being Muslim for me cartoon of Muhammad or draw Muhammad day is not offensive but it might be offensive for many Muslims. What is offensive is subjective matter. As leading lyricist javed akhtar said that he does not find taslima’s comments offensive but someone might have found it offensive but does that gives them right to threaten taslima?. Would they get right to burnt her alive?.
Ironically most religion believe in judgment day but themselves turn judges and try to punish those whom they believe have done something which is against their belief system!!!!!!!!
There are laws in every country to approach courts when one feels that his/her religious sentiments are hurt. This is civilized way to approach. Isn’t it?
Coming to freedom of expression. Does freedom of expression give license to hurt other’s sentiment?. If one expresses his/her freedom of expression as reserved by constitutions of many countries , other person too has right to approach court to file case of hurting his/her religious sentiments. I as writer have right to express my views but does that give me right to hurt others?
Freedom and responsibility go hand in hand. There should be balance between what is called freedom of expression and effects of that freedom on masses , in general.
In same way religious sentiments should not take control to the extent that fellow human being gets killed and killers justify their killing. Religion is to make us good human being and there is always civilized way to register one’s protest.
Religious sentiments v/s freedom of speech would continue as it has continued throughout human history. Debate would go on.Isn’t it?
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I agree with everything of the article excepting “Freedom of expression does not allow anybody to hurt someone’s sentiment’.
I just want to mention what Booker Author Arundhoti Roy has said about this topic.
Karan Thapar: Let’s come to the issues and the principle that underlie what I call the Taslima Nasreen story. To begin with, do you view freedom of speech as an absolute freedom, without any limitations or would you accept that there are certain specific constraints that we all have to accept?
Arundhati Roy: It is a complicated question and has been debated often. I personally, do view it as something that should have no caveats for this simple reason that in a place where there are so many contending beliefs, so many conflicting things, only the powerful will then decide what those caveats should be and those caveats will always be used by the powerful.
Karan Thapar: So you’re saying that given the fact that many people are vulnerable, freedom of speech for them should have no caveats, it should be absolute and that’s their only protection?
Arundhati Roy: I think so because if you look at the facts, you have outfits like VHP or the Bajrang Dal or the CD that the BJP produced during the UP elections, you see that they do what they want to do. The powerful always do what they want to do. It is the powerless and the vulnerable that need free speech.
It is taken from this link – http://kafila.org/2007/12/02/arundhati-roy-on-taslima-nasreen-and-nandigram-interview-with-karan-thapar-on-ibnlivecom/
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