 Print
Europe loves to wear the hat of double standards
1-14-2015
The journalists at Charlie Hebdo are now rightly being celebrated as martyrs on behalf of freedom of expression, but let’s face it: If they had tried to publish their satirical articles or cartoons with the same proportion as they did towards Muslims on the Pope or an important Jewish personnel, it wouldn’t have lasted 30 seconds before the journalist is accused of hate speech and or possibly shut down.
And that is exactly what happened last summer. Maurice Sinet, 80, who works under the pen name Sine, faces charges of "inciting racial hatred" for a column he wrote last July in the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo. Charlie Hebdo's editor, Philippe Val, asked Sinet to apologise but he refused, exclaiming: "I'd rather cut my balls off." Mr Val's decision to fire Sine was backed by a group of eminent intellectuals.
The first thing I would like to say, I suppose, whatever you might have to say about someone’s religion, then what good would do for you and what reaction you might get out of that person.
The West has a history of starting the problem and blaming Muslims for it.
At this moment no Muslim country has dared to put their soldiers on ground in Non-Muslim country, but the west has a long list of invasions.
Despite who carried out this ugly murder, the western countries make laws that they always violates when it collides with their principles.
According to Western laws, Religions and religious groups should be respected for their beliefs and to be given the freedom to practice their faith, an attack on religious symbols, beliefs or worship halls is a crime.
It is different a story in the case Muslims, however, Europe with its modern civilization did not stop the attack on Muslim minorities within Europe since the early 90s, did not condemn the destruction of historical mosques and the rape of young girls or the killing of women.
Europe in the past 25 years had never criticized a writer or a filmmaker, a journalist or a cartoonist for mocking the religion of Islam or its prophet, starting from the book of Satanic verses written by Salman Rushdie to the recent upsetting articles and cartoon made by Charlie Hebdo against our dear prophet Mohamed (PBUH).
Muslims cannot even think about criticizing the prophets of Christianity or Judaism. It will not happen.
What exactly is the problem then, where did it start, who started it and why.
When one looks through the history of Islam, old or recent, one shall find no trace of any attack from Muslims rulers on any religion or religious groups or symbols, one will also find no trace whatsoever where Muslims in power had committed any kind of genocide or ethnic cleansing against a non-Muslim minority that lived under an Islamic state, on the contrary, Muslim showed a pristine example of respect and tolerance to all that lived under their cover.
So where all this hatred and intolerance against Islam comes from.
The answer is clear, which like many answers that the west deliberately hides and underestimates, which Islam represent a challenge.
Islam challenges ideologies and laws, it stands clear on its positions on many controversial issues that are adopted by many countries in the world.
Islam alone has the power to transform nations, to establish worldwide justice and global peace- I say again (worldwide justice and global peace) which are the two missed commodities that our world is lacking.
Islam has the power to establish the true basic tenets of human equalities and the true brotherhood of man.
Unfortunately, the western culture with all of its might cannot offer these virtues to the world, simply because they do not believe in it and at the moment is losing the tide by hundreds of converts coming to the fold of Islam daily.
The Western Governments along with the puppet leaders of the Muslim countries had created a dysfunctional Muslim nation, and to add salt to injury, they decided to go as far as allowing their media, TV shows and film makers to insult the religion of Islam and attack its holiest symbols.
There is no doubt that the Muslim Ummah is awakened and is trying to regain its strength.
The public reaction to the attack in Paris has revealed that western governments are quick to judge Muslim communities and advertise for a war on terror in France, but by the same token the same people are a lot less tolerant toward those who offend their own views at home.
It is fair to say that The French government started the problem when it decided to show hostility toward Muslim by targeting Muslim immigrants in France contributing to the sense of siege among French Muslims and adopting a ban on the Muslim women dress code which was widely seen as a harsh racism against devout Muslim women in France’s biggest minority.
The attack on Charlie Hebdo is wrong and Muslims condemn by all means as we Muslim do not approve the killing of any civilian, newspaper agency or TV host for what they choose to express even we hate what we hear from them, but what I have a big problem with is, not the fact that the action of those gunman is condemned or not, it's the behavior of the French Government!!!
Several Arab and Islamic nations and media had gone beyond the offending drawings of the prophet of Islam and had widely condemned the attack on Charlie Hebdo including the Union of Islamic Organizations of France, but the French Government as well as the French media simply ignored it and called for a war on terror, similar to what George W Bush did after 911.
It is this double standard that is the real problem: A blame and a rough criticism is always ready to be charged against the Muslims whenever a cruel or a criminal act is carried by one, But no one blames or reprimands the one that stared the problem, as if we Muslim should be obliged to apologies for our reactionary individuals and accept that our holy book to be burned and our prophet to made fun of and insulted while we are yet to see the same when a Jew , Christian or Buddhist community gets blamed for the action of their followers, we see and hear every day the continuous demonization of the ideology of Islam on TV shows, Radio stations, newspaper front page and even by religious and political figures in the non-Muslim world for an act of individual Muslim or individual group, but we are yet to hear or see the condemnation of countries and governments that applaud the horrifying and inhuman slaughter that is carried daily against Muslims in Burma, Kashmir, Central Africa or previously in their own European continent.
The French media openly bashes Muslim community for the attack on the Jewish writer but ignores the daily Jewish attack on Palestinians in the occupied territories, never once criticized the country’s rule in the African country of Mali that resulted in the death of 1000,s of innocent citizens.
Why does not France or other European countries charge those journalists or writers of a hate crime or simply put an end to this silliness of attacking other people’s religion under what they call (freedom of speech)
Why is it when a criminal act of a Muslim individual is carried out, a whole vulnerable Muslim community gets the blame and becomes an easy target.
Why not demand an investigation and find out who is behind those perpetrators.
There are no justification for someone to attack a journalist or writer or film maker for his views of a religion or ideology, it is heinous and it is intolerable, but what is worse than that and more shameful is for sovereign country and a responsible government to tolerate crimes on their own citizens and the attack on their religious belief.
It is foolish to bring people to a boiling level and expect them not to react, It is foolish that a great nation do not know the difference for freedom of expression to exist- then freedom of offence should seize to exist.
Footnotes:
|