Freedom of speech and freedom of protest

On the 30^th of September 2005, the Danish newspaper "Jyllands-Posten" had published a caricature which depicted the Islamic prophet Muhammad with a bomb on his head. About five months later this caricature and many more led to Islamic protest across the Muslim world as well as in Europe especially in Denmark (the origin of this crisis). Those protest escalated into violence with instances of firing on crowds of protestors resulting in a total of more than thousand casualties, including bombing Danish embassies in various countries all over the world.

The famous caricature:

This video shows the consequences of this event:

You probably ask yourself what is my point in this case. This is an example that shows the powerful role that media has to influence on a particular community in the world.

The Muslim world went mad! And for what?! For a cartoon that have been published on a Danish newspaper, which criticize the Islamic world a little bit.

Don't get me wrong! I agree with the Muslim world and their protest against the caricatures that maybe had crossed the lines, but there is a right way to protest without the use of violence and to threat on those who published and create the caricatures. Everyone has the right to protest, and yet everyone has also the right to have freedom of speech and expression.

 Flemming Rose, "Jyllands-Posten's" culture editor explains:

"The cartoonists treated Islam the same way they treat Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism and other religions. And by treating Muslims in Denmark as equals they made a point: We are integrating you into the Danish tradition of satire because you are part of our society, not strangers. The cartoons are including, rather than excluding, Muslims."

But on the other hand, The Muslim World especially the Arab media is not so innocent. They like to interpret Judaism in caricatures as the filthiest religious in the whole world. And the big question is "Have you ever seen a mob of Jews protest violently and threat on anyone?" I don’t think you'll see something like that.     

  

This caricature shows the hypocrisy of the Muslim and Arab world: 

http://img2.moonbuggy.org/imgstore/do-you-have-any-idea-how-offensive-that-is.jpg

I am not religious person but if I had known there is serious harm to my reputation or my people and it will carry a social protest, I'll join in the protest as long it takes in a quiet and peaceful way.

Although we can use our body as offensive tool, I believe that we shouldn't do it. The best way to settle disputes is by freedom of speech without cursing and swearing.

As a human being we have the power and the ability with the right communication and with the assistant of the worldwide media, to bring PEACE to the world.  

The 'Muhammad caricature' is examples how people can interpret wrong the meaning that the author wanted to bring out to the public.

There is the famous phrase that says: "A picture is worth a thousand words" – in this case "caricature was worth a thousand casualties".

I hope it is the last time that caricatures will cause undermining the stability of the world.

see you soon again

Ben