Sunday, October 15, 2006
ELIMINATE YOUR WAY TO FREEDOM
Toronto’s Hamid Rizvi explains free speech, Islam-style:
Islam values the rights of every person and their right to express their opinion. Expressing their opinion is different, however, from openly denouncing or insulting the beliefs and religion of someone else. When Muslims in the world retaliate against such opinions—or the Danish cartoons—they are not trying to eliminate freedom of speech. Instead, we are trying to eliminate the unnecessary hatred against us that is based on completely false facts and analysis.
The fact that someone could call the Koran a “book of inherent violence” tells us how ignorant and uninformed that person is about our religion ...
There is a simple solution to these “violent” retaliations. Let’s keep practising free speech, but eliminate the ignorant insulting of Muslim beliefs. The retaliations will stop.
No deal, blackmailer. (By the way, Hamid signs off with a cheery: “It is pretty hard to clap with just one hand.” Which is why petty thieves in fundamentalist countries have learned how to whistle.)