Editor in Chief: Moh. Reza Huwaida Monday, April 29th, 2024

Freedom of Speech: Does not mean to Abuse Ideologies

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Freedom of Speech: Does not  mean to Abuse Ideologies

There has been no censorship imposed on any individual's ideological thoughts in any constitution. Human beings are born freely; have the right to live freely and follow any ideology that suites the definition of their life. But the freedom of speech and right to live freely do not mean to abuse and harm the surroundings.

Recently, a film titled as, "Innocence of Muslims" in which the producer has tried to convey a message of viewing Islam as a religion of violence and ill-portrayed the personality of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) has created tension among the Muslim societies all over the world.

The video was initially filmed and posted in English language in July, 2012. It had not gotten that controversial before the Arabic version got republished on the same YouTube channel. Though later on the Arabic version was removed off the channel but it had gotten too late, because it was already copied tens and viewed thousands of times. As a result, since Sept 11, 2012 all around the world; Muslim societies are the witness of huge protests against the movie which is considered as contempt to Islamic ideology.

The protestors all the over the Muslim world have been claiming that the film maker has abused the personality of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH). They have been attacking US government affiliated establishments, embassies and consulates in different parts of the world during the last few days.

The first US-Officials' group outside America paid the price on September 11, during the mob attack on US consulate in Benghazi, Libya that resulted in the assassination of US Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.

Simultaneously, US embassy in Cairo, Egypt was attacked on the same day and the protestors torn down American flag replacing with Islamist banners. Since then, the Muslim world has been hosting clouds of peaceful and to some level violated protests. The demonstrations initially staged from Arab world and gradually covered all over the Muslim world which still continues contributing to human tragedy; particularly in Afghanistan.

Afghan people had long been deprived of protesting for their basic rights for many decades during the civil war and Taliban era. Since the fall of the Taliban regime in late 2001, Afghan people have been playing their role during certain occasion of protesting for their rights or defending their ideologies.

As long as the society is a pure Islamic empire state, in order to contribute their grave concern regarding the incident of Anti-Islamic video production, the country has been the stage of Anti-American marches during the last few days. For instance, following a week of protests around the entire Muslim world, Kabul University students took out a rally of hundreds of students who were accompanied by many lecturers and professors regarding the anti-Muslim film on Sunday, September 16.

The students' protest in Kabul ended peacefully on Sunday. In addition, on Monday, September 17, many protestors who were shouting the anti-American slogans marched on streets in eastern areas of Kabul which finally, resulted in around 50 policemen including Kabul's police chief to pay the price; the scene did not end up there.

A female suicide bomber killed 12 people in Kabul on Tuesday, September 18, 2012 who claimed to avenge the Anti-Muslim film. According to security officials in Kabul, "nine foreigners were among the victims of Tuesday's incident on a major highway leading to Kabul airport and close to a wedding hall when the bomber blew her station wagon up along-side a minivan carrying foreigner workers."

Tuesday's attack in Kabul brings to more than 30, the number of people now killed in a violent backlash over a YouTube trailer for the film, "Innocence of Muslims", believed to have been produced by a small group of extremist Christians. The idea behind producing such a film is nothing more than a personal view of an extremist Christian from Islam.

Though, the film has not been released and supported by the highly creditable Hollywood Cinema of Western world and has been rejected to be rated as well worthy documentation by the American authorities, but unfortunately; it still contributes to human tragedy in Islamic societies.

In addition, the film has been released from an ambiguous source that the master mind behind the scene has not been 100% confirmed yet, because most of the people who have worked with the culprit know him as Sam Bacile while the federal officials have named him Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, a convicted felon with a history of using aliases to hide his actions.

Religion is an ideological philosophy which is beyond the understanding level of an individual to analyze it accurately. Furthermore, the prestige of Prophet Mohammad's (PBUH) personality is rather higher than to be insulted just by a film which does not even have any valuable source.

The idea of misusing the freedom of speech for abusing and harming the others is not appreciated, but the illogical reactions which are based on torturing public properties and killing innocent people who have got no concern with the issue are not wise either.

In fact, instead of marching on the streets which finally end up with no result, it is better to deeply analyze the issue that what are the factors that have lined up the opportunities for people such as Nakoula to abuse the personality of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) and attack our ideological concepts.

The ideas of raising such issues are nothing more than psychological games that some opportunity seekers behind the screen benefit by fuelling the fire of ideological war. We have already paid the price of ideological war and it is not wise to turn the victim once again.
Torturing public properties and killing innocent people will not lead us towards any result. It is better to be intelligent enough in order not to be misused over and over.

Abbas Ali Sultani is the permanent writer of Daily Outlook Afghanistan and an Undergraduate Student at American University of Afghanistan (AUAF). Your opinions are welcomed at ali.ccna@hotmail.com.

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