IS FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION EVER ABSOLUTE?

French President Mr. Macron recently said that Muslims should not get upset over caricatures of Muhammad (peace be upon him) being hung from government buildings in France, and should not stop buying French products. However, when I did a little Google search I found out that;


- When President Erdogan of Turkey recently criticized Mr. Macron and questioned his mental health, he got so upset that he recalled the French Ambassador to Turkey back to France. <https://edition.cnn.com/2020/10/25/europe/erdogan-macron-france-muslims-intl/index.html>

- When President Bolsonaro of Brazil made some (clearly inappropriate) comments about Mr. Macron’s wife, he got so upset that he said, ““I think Brazilian women will probably be ashamed to read that from their president. I think that Brazilians, … will probably be ashamed to see this behaviour … I hope that they will very soon have a president who behaves in the right way. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/26/macron-rebukes-bolsonaro-over-extraordinarily-rude-comments-about-wife

- According to Amnesty International, when two French men burnt an effigy depicting Mr. Macron’s in a peaceful protest in 2019, they were convicted of ‘contempt’ by a French court. https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2020/11/france-is-not-the-free-speech-champion-it-says-it-is/

What is difficult for a naïve person like me to understand is why did Mr. Macron not say in response to these comments or actions that “Under the French inviolable right of freedom of expression, Mr. Erdogan/Bolsonaro are well within their rights to say whatever they want to say. I may not agree with everything they say, but I will still fight for their right to say it (sorry Voltaire).”

I will really appreciate if someone can please explain why it is okay for it to be offensive or unlawful to make fun of a president or his wife, but a matter of freedom of expression to make fun of someone who is revered as a Messenger of God by nearly one and a half billion people in this world?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

FOLLOWING NEW CONTENT ON THIS PAGE

 Assalam Alaikum Wa Rahmatullah  Having posted the same content on Facebook, this Google blog, Twitter and WhatsApp, the scribe has learnt that most people follow this content on the other three media, and hardly anyone on Google Blogger. Therefore, from now on the scribe will stop posting on this blog. Those who wish to follow the new content can do so on Facebook  https://www.facebook.com/groups/1827355620834976 Twitter https://twitter.com/SyedAhmerNZ or by joining the WhatsApp group 'ISLAM SAYS' by clicking this link https://chat.whatsapp.com/GC6q8A1ezfcCMlrdKQCiD9 Wassalam and Jazak Allah Khair
Read more

Usmani Discourses Volume. 2

Image
  Alhamdulillah the second volume of the collection of translations of Mufti Taqi Usmani sahib's (DB) talks is now ready. Because of the Covid situation around the world I decide to just publish it as an e-book at this time. However, there is no restriction on anyone who wants to publish it in print and may want to distribute it. My first and foremost thanks and gratitude to Mufti Taqi Usmani sahib himself. As you know I am not a religious scholar. I had started translating his talks for my children, family, and friends who are unable to read Urdu. When I had first told him, I was shocked when he had written back, "publish it as a book when you have translated enough material." I didn't think (and still don't think) it was my place for my name to be associated with such an eminent and one of the foremost scholar of our times but I told myself that if he is telling me to do it, there must be some Khair (good) in it, so I took it on as a lifelong project. May the re
Read more

SEEKING FORGIVENESS FOR GHEEBAT (BACKBITING)? - 7 (a talk by Mufti Taqi Usmani DB)

  Seek forgiveness from all your acquaintances   The next question is, who to seek forgiveness from? Who remembers how many people’s  Gheebat  we committed throughout our lives when we were completely neglectful about it? Should we draw up a list of all of them and ask all of them for forgiveness? Hadhrat Mufti Muhammad Shafi (may Allah have mercy on him) used to say that Paradise is not cheap. If you really want to go to Paradise then you will have to make some effort for it. Draw up a list of all your acquaintances, all your friends, all your relatives, and then seek forgiveness from all of them.
Read more