Cartoon controversy
30 September, 2005:
The Danish daily newspaper Jyllands-Posten published twelve cartoons depicting the Islamic prophet Muhammed. Later a number of newspapers around the world too published these cartoons. This subsequently snowballed into a raging controversy and led to widespread anger and resentment throughout the Islamic world. There were demonstrations in countries which are far away from Denmark, viz. India and Pakistan among others.
In London, more than 500 people led by a few radical Islamic extremists marched toward the Danish embassy. They carried banners containing hate messages, exhorted the Muslim community to retaliate and chanted: "Britain, you will pay, 7/7 on its way."
I do not believe that the publishers of the newspaper were unaware of the fact that the cartoons would lead to a conflagration which may result in law and order problems and in the extreme case, jihadi terrorist attacks. Were the actions of the publishers based on the premise of "freedom of speech" or were they just playing mischief to attract attention ? Nobody knows.
Whatever be the motive, there is no doubting that this was clearly a case of taking things too far in the name of freedom of speech. Freedom of speech is one of the tenets of democracy; it gives people the right to speak out, to voice their criticism and protest against any wrongdoing. However, a rigorous definition of the term "freedom of speech" doesn't exist; there are a few gray areas. Which gives rise to a problem: people with malicious intent can exploit the ambiguous aspects to suit their purposes. When that happens, society should take a stand against these elements in a truly democratic fashion. Freedom of speech is not freedom of exploiting/hurting other's sentiments/doing anything without any accountability. Freedom of speech blended with common sense and accountability is the perfect cocktail.
The Danish daily newspaper Jyllands-Posten published twelve cartoons depicting the Islamic prophet Muhammed. Later a number of newspapers around the world too published these cartoons. This subsequently snowballed into a raging controversy and led to widespread anger and resentment throughout the Islamic world. There were demonstrations in countries which are far away from Denmark, viz. India and Pakistan among others.
In London, more than 500 people led by a few radical Islamic extremists marched toward the Danish embassy. They carried banners containing hate messages, exhorted the Muslim community to retaliate and chanted: "Britain, you will pay, 7/7 on its way."
I do not believe that the publishers of the newspaper were unaware of the fact that the cartoons would lead to a conflagration which may result in law and order problems and in the extreme case, jihadi terrorist attacks. Were the actions of the publishers based on the premise of "freedom of speech" or were they just playing mischief to attract attention ? Nobody knows.
Whatever be the motive, there is no doubting that this was clearly a case of taking things too far in the name of freedom of speech. Freedom of speech is one of the tenets of democracy; it gives people the right to speak out, to voice their criticism and protest against any wrongdoing. However, a rigorous definition of the term "freedom of speech" doesn't exist; there are a few gray areas. Which gives rise to a problem: people with malicious intent can exploit the ambiguous aspects to suit their purposes. When that happens, society should take a stand against these elements in a truly democratic fashion. Freedom of speech is not freedom of exploiting/hurting other's sentiments/doing anything without any accountability. Freedom of speech blended with common sense and accountability is the perfect cocktail.
posted by Sushovan at
2:57 PM
1 Comments
