CHARLIE HEBDO: FREE SPEECH AND ITS LIMITS

                                                 
                                                   

    

Je Suis Charlie. As far as I am libertarian in my thinking, we are all Charlie. The recent massacre of the French satirists could have happened to any liberty loving person, particularly bloggers. The heinous and barbaric acts of misguided uncivilized men as the Kourachi brothers and AmedyCoulibaly has once again brought to the fore the issue of Free speech and its limits.

In no way can we discount the fact that the evil these three terrorists wrought on the city of Paris terrorized a continent. It is reprehensible and disgusting and such actions has no place in the midst of civilized men. However, we can also rightly ask, is Charlie Hebdo’s free speech fundamentalism right?

“We are all Charlie” not because we agree with most of the distasteful publications of Charlie Hebdo but because of our fundamental belief that freedom of expression is an inalienable human right and not just western values and we are not about to give up that freedom anytime soon or ever will.

Nonetheless, we must recognize that freedom of speech also comes with the decency of respecting what is sacrilegious to others and the responsibility to be courteous in expressing our divergent opinions on the religion and cultures of others because either we accept it or not the identities of most people in the world today are defined by these two elements: religion and culture.

I am a free speech fundamentalist myself but I recognize its limits because I know that no idea, whether moral or political, is absolute. I would also add that no religion has monopoly over the truth and no idea is above scrutiny. In this age and time, religious dogmas cum moral ideas and its attendant world view cannot be enforced on people at the threat of terror. The world must not give in. Ideas that are worth it are won through the force of argument not through threat of slaughter. It is in this stead that we are all Charlie. But when free speech trumps the dignity and cultural cum religious identities of others then we must know that it has exceeded its limits and should be self-censored.