Ahmetova L. S.
Senior Lecturer, MA in
History
Kostanay state university
named after A. Baytursynov
Kazakhstan, Kostanay
FREEDOM OF SPEECH AND RELIGIOUS : COMPARISON STUDY.
In recent years, the conflicts
between supporters of the liberal and democratic values and believers
from various confessions often occur. The liberals believe that democracy and
freedom of speech must cover all areas of human existence, including attitude
towards religion. But religious figures come against disregard of the
feelings of believers and demand respect for themselves and the values they
adhere. Simultaneously there is also the political background of all these
processes. The most famous world scandals have erupted for the last time in
connection with the caricatures of the prophet Muhammad, published in the
weekly Parisian magazine Charlie Hebdo, which have led to vehement protests by
Muslims, international scandal and mass riots in several countries around the
world. That subsequently has led to an
armed attack on the editorial staff of Charlie Hebdo, which killed 12 people.
Given the global
extent of these events, absolutely naturally questions raise about their compliance to the arguments of common
sense and logic. These points cause many questions that are difficult to find
any unambiguous answers for. First of all, it's necessary to find out as far as
uncommon and outstanding event is abusive attacks on the prophet Muhammad in
Europe and especially in the history of European political and religious
thought. Studying this question, it is easy to come to the unequivocal
conclusion that since the middle ages, many European thinkers and political
figures have been forming an atmosphere of intolerance towards Islam and
everything connected with this religion.In the period of confrontation between
the Muslim and Christian States in the middle ages enmity towards Muslims systematically inculcated into the public
conscience of European Nations both in Western and in Eastern Europe. It is absolutely
natural that in such circumstances, abusive attacks against Islamic sanctities
and personality of the prophet Muhammad were common.European thought and public
consciences have progressed in the environment of complete rejection of
civilization, which they have had tough competition with.
Many masterpieces of
European literature, drama, poetry, philosophical thought in a varying degree
have anti-Islamic orientation.As an example the world-famous "the Divine
Comedy" by Dante Alighieri, in which in the most offensive expressions and
hellish characters the prophet Mohammed is mentioned [1].
In the Church of St. Petronio in
Bologna, Italy until today there is a fresco of the 15th century with
illustrations on these verses from "The Divine Comedy"[2].
And in the Museum of the Spanish city Santiago de Compostella there is a
medieval statue of St. Jago, smiting off the heads of Muslims , which has been
moved there from one of the churches[3] .
At different times many European thinkers and philosophers have come out
with the abusive attacks on the prophet Muhammad and the religion of Islam. In particular, the prominent
representative of Catholic thought, Thomas Aquinas in his work "Summa
contra Gentiles" (1, 5) has spoken
about the Islamic religion as a distorted truth, religion of lust and violence[4].
No less intolerant position in
relation to Islam has held one of the founders of Protestantism, Martin Luther,
,which linked the personality of the prophet Muhammad with the darkest forces,
and called his faith a lie [2].
Attacks against the Islamic religion have continued in European
socio-political thought in the next centuries. For example, even an outstanding
French philosopher Voltaire has grossly insulted the prophet in the tragedy of "Muhammad", also
almost going to the level of billingsgate [3]. E. Renan in 1992 at the conference "Islam
and science" has been responsible for the backwardness of the Muslim
peoples of the Islamic religion and believed that it has outlived its
usefulness [4].
It's absolutely natural, that anti-Islamic stance in European countries
has firmly entrenched in the minds of people. Despite the subsequent processes
of secularization and the gradual retreat of the positions of Christianity,
Islamophobia has begun taking other forms,
clothed in secular service, but, in fact, remained constant. As for the Soviet
Union and its allies, over several decades of the Communist regime an enormous number of the most diverse
anti-Islamic literature was published.[5].
Currently books, articles, containing direct insults to various tenets
of the Islamic religion and the personality of the prophet Muhammad are also
published. With the development of new information technologies, international
computer network Internet there are serious resources, working in anti-Islamic
orientation. As an example there are
English http://www.answeringislam.org/ or Russian
http://www.pravoslavie-islam.ru. On these resources there is a lot of material
of insulting contents to Muslims.
As for the cartoon genre, here at various times has been released many
books anti-religious content. For example, the famous French cartoonist Jean
Effel has released a book where a believer of any denomination can find a lot
of offensive chances.
It's possible to see there an insult not only to the address of any
prophet, but also against God Himself. [5]
As it can be seen from this incomplete short overview of the actual
material, for several centuries, and up until today, unfortunately, abusive
attacks against Islam and the prophet Muhammad
happen from time to time and they not always lead to such violent
protests, as the scandal over the cartoons published in a minor journal. Within
memory there is only one similar case, which occurred after the publication of
Salman Rushdie "Satanic verses".Of
course, insulting the religious feelings of Muslims cannot be called normal
occurrence. But, at the same time, there are reasonable questions about why do
not , for example, a Muslim organization so emotionally reacting to French
cartoons, require removal of the "divine Comedy" by Dante from the
shelves of bookstores and libraries, not only in Europe but also in Muslim
countries? Why have the protests never been against Thomas Aquinas, Voltaire,
Jean Effel? Why is there
no reaction to the abusive anti-Islamic Internet resources? And if you compare
the content of these cartoons with the contents of the works of the above
authors, it is easy to see that the latter is much more offensive to Muslims.
For this reason, it is possible to come to an unambiguous conclusion that in
the actions of the protesters Muslims elementary logic has been violated here.
Also it is easy to see
that the mass protests of Muslims have made Salman Rushdie and cartoonists
Peter Bungard, Kurt Westergaard, Stefan Carbone famous and popular people, have
created around them a halo of heroism. The question is whether it has been the
appearance of such "heroes" and "martyrs"?Someone who has
known about them without the help of protesting against them Muslims? In this
case, there is no doubt that in fact, consciously or unconsciously for them has
been made a great advertisement.
But for the Muslims,
these actions can hardly be called successful in terms of PR. Firstly, there
have been riots, and in some cases they have occurred with the knowledge and
acquiescence of the state authorities of some countries.
It can unlikely be
seriously to believe that dictatorial and monarchical regimes that rule in most
countries of the Muslim world, suddenly overnight become overfree, allowing his
subjects to calmly destroy Western embassies. There is no doubt that if we were
talking about the speech of the people against these regimes, these
performances would be suppressed immediately.
And secondly, for the
Western people, it has become clear that the indignant Muslim masses are fighting
for some reason not with the thoughts or ideas of the same Rushdie or French,
Danish cartoonists, but with their personalities. Is it really the whole
Islamic world has nothing to say against some hacks, apart from threats of
taking their lives?
It would seem that the
propitious moment has arrived to start the polemic in the press, other media,
to show the strength of his intellect, to expand the debate to promote ideas of
Islam. But somehow the voice of intellectuals fades amid violent emotions,
which are used and maintained various media against the interests of the
Muslims.
And have the people,
throwing stones at Western embassies, ever wondered how their actions are
consistent with the provisions of Islamic law (fiqh),that are prohibiting such
actions?
An attempted boycott of
French goods production, attempts of pressure on French authorities seem
unconvincing from the point of view of logic. The questions are caused the
requirement in order officials of France to apologize to the Muslims for these
cartoons. Why should an innocent man be compelled to ensure that he apologized
or took responsibility for another person?
How would the average
Muslim react to the requirements of the Buddhists about what exactly he should
apologize to them for undermining the Buddha statues by Talibans ? And
which Islamic government or officials
have apologized to the Buddhist world for it ?And most importantly, nobody
remembers that the main principle of Islamic law is the provision that an
innocent man is not responsible for the criminal acts of another person. only
guilty of the offense should respond
and apologize, only until his guilt is proven in court.
There are also questions
about why some heads of States ,with a predominantly Muslim population, spoil
relations with the European countries during the time when there are many
millions of Muslims and the Islamic
religion spreads. Is it not clear that the interests of their co-religionists
there will suffer? Or those Muslims are considered more second-rate than the
Muslims in their own countries?
It's naturally that to
protest against the insult of religious feelings of believers is not prohibited
and is a legitimate right of Muslims. However, it's neccessary to choose a
legal and civilized methods of struggle. All disputes must be resolved in the
courts.
If all Muslim
communities, organizations and States have combined their efforts and have achieved court processes against the
cartoonists, the effect would be much bigger. Even in case of defeat in court,
at least they would demonstrate their tolerance and ability to fight in
civilized ways. And this would bring undoubted benefit to the image of Islam.
When the Islamic world
was superior to the rest of the world in all fields and especially in cultural
terms. Tolerance and higher culture of Muslims have been admired even by their
sworn enemies.
These qualities have
brought great glory for Islam and have contributed to its rapid spread. Alas,
today the Muslims have completely lost this advantage.
Today about tolerance and
wisdom of the Islamic world is no longer necessary. Unfortunately today, the
ideas of this great religion is increasingly used by various political groups
and countries to achieve their political goals.
The way out is education
of the Muslim peoples and returning to the original values and worldview that
generation of Muslims, when Islamic civilization has been at the height of his
fame.
Literature:
1.Dante Alighieri. The
Divine Comedy. Song 28. http://kifkif.ru/2006/02/pesn-dvadtsat-vosmaya
2.http://www.armyofgod.com/Mohameddemons.html
3.http://news8.thdo.bbc.co.uk/hi/russian/life/newsid_3681000/3681507.stm
4.Fausel Henry. Martin
Luther. Life and business. Kharkov, 1996. T. 2, pp.
296-312. http://baptistkiev.narod.ru/luter.htm
5.John Damascene." Concerning Heresy" 101 chapter.