I am so saddened to read the ongoing farce that is the Koran burning threat by pastor jones in the USA.
There is an almost perverse dilema in a society which encourages freedom of speech but at the same time wants to repect all faiths. In other words Mr Jones is exercising a right to disrespect!
How to we square such a circle? Surely if the basis of our belief is LOVE then anything which is not born from love or indeed encourages hate should be discouraged. Of course society could impose this by new laws. By simply arresting the offenders...but then the cry from people like Mr jones where is 'freedom of speech'.
To me its like saying everyone has a right to shoot a gun..but that doesn't mean you can point it at someone and kill them.
Having lived my life in northern ireland and experienced 30 years violence..I know some things for sure.
Provocation is dangerous. An 'eye for an eye' makes everyone blind and violence in the name of any belief is simply wrong.
If Mr jones really follows the word of God then I hope he will carefully read both the Bible and the Koran before taking actions that are not simply born of his own human instincts for anger and revenge.
Someone once made a comment to me that seems very apt on reading about this man intent on acting upon his right to freedom of speech. - Yes, everyone has the right to freedom of speech - but they also have the responsibility that goes with that. With right comes responsibility. It's like student charters and that kind of thing that focus on "you have the right to feel safe in this environment"- what they rarely say is that "you also have the responsibility to make sure you do not make anyone else feel unsafe in your purusit of feeling safe". (I could go on, I did a 15 minute presentation on the right to be safe for Amnesty once.)
ReplyDeleteA further comment was one I picked up from a friend on facebook, who was paraphrasing something he heard on one of the american news channels - if a 'Christian' wants to burn the Koran, that makes him an extremist - if a Muslim wants to read the Koran, that makes him an extremist.
Seems apt, really.
very true
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