We have grown extremely intolerant as a society.<\/p>\n
The recent Charlie Hebdo incident triggered a lot of conversations around the world and it got me thinking. Let\u2019s keep the violence and killing aside for a moment, I can\u2019t (hopefully nobody can) justify and\/or support that.<\/p>\n
But Islam prohibits anyone to draw any image and call it Prophet. There is no ambiguity, it is plain and simple prohibited. And it forms a very important tenet of Islam. Having said this,\u00a0does a devout Muslim have a reason to be upset over violation of what they regard as their belief system and\/or their religious rights?<\/p>\n
To answer this, I shall quote Pope Francis who in a recent interview said, \u201cYou cannot provoke. You cannot insult the faith of others. You cannot make fun of the faith of others.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some of you might argue saying that if you don\u2019t like images of Prophet Muhammad, don\u2019t draw them but don\u2019t tell me that I can\u2019t draw them. But the point that all of us miss here is that freedom of expression has its limits, especially if it involves insulting or ridiculing someone else\u2019s faith.<\/p>\n
So, the question is not about us having untrammelled freedom of speech but us actually evolving as a more secular society where we respect each other\u2019s beliefs and where we don’t use humour as\u00a0a\u00a0tool to ridicule those beliefs.<\/p>\n
The ire stems from the disregard of this basic right. Again, not with standing the violence, I do sincerely believe that freedom of expression and speech means your ability to voice out your perspective but it certainly doesn’t give you the right to downplay someone else\u2019s basic beliefs.<\/p>\n
Society is built on acceptance. Isn’t that what forms the very foundation of freedom of expression and freedom of speech?<\/p>\n
I, for one, will side with Muslims on being upset over the cartoons, but will certainly not support the violence.<\/p>\n
Hoping this incident will make us all more responsible for what we do and more accepting of each other’s rights.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We have grown extremely intolerant as a society. The recent Charlie Hebdo incident triggered a lot of conversations around the world and it got me thinking. Let\u2019s keep the violence and killing aside for a moment, I can\u2019t (hopefully nobody can) justify and\/or support that. But Islam prohibits anyone to draw any image and call […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":293,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[265],"tags":[77,80,81,76,79,78],"class_list":["post-292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-digital-and-social-media-expert","tag-charlie-hebdo","tag-freedom-of-expression","tag-freedom-of-speech","tag-je-suis-charlie","tag-pope-francis","tag-terror-attack"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n