Some pseudo-wise man in America
makes a provocative video and sarcastically names it ‘Innocence of Muslims’ and
immediately as if on cue the entire Muslim world dances with rage. Joining the
fun and enjoying the desperation of the Muslims another one such wise guy makes
some more cartoons in France. The Muslims are now going red beyond rage, but
can very well see that the Christians are playing with them. The earlier
Denmark cartoonist must be grinning widely on all his 32 teeth. The more the
Muslims will agitate, the more the Christians will continue to poke fun. I guess
Muslims and Christians share a great love for each other. They can’t live
without each other. Otherwise there is no justifiable reason why one purposely provokes
the other and the other gets provoked knowing fully well the intention and the
consequence. It is said that love and hate are two sides of the same coin.
Greater the love; greater is the hate. If there was no love there would not
have been any hate. That makes the Muslims the greatest lovers on earth because
there is always a simmering tension between the Hindus and Muslims in India as
well.
On a serious note, I would say
that both the groups are wrong and are being immature. One group uses the
phrase ‘freedom of expression’ to say and get away with insults. It is their sophisticated manner of
expressing their anger. Since their civilization has evolved to a level that
murder is looked down upon, they resort to ridicule. As they say, the pen is
mightier than the sword. The other side is more basic and simplistic in their
emotions and expression, shying away from sophistication and diplomacy and where
killing is the ultimate way to resolve a dispute. Both the sides get angry very
fast and react only to hurt. Both sides do not actually believe in God, do not respect
and love God, inspite of arguments purported to the contrary.
Communal baiting has for
centuries been seen all around the globe. It portrays the culture of groupism
the propagation of a homogenous population which sees and does things in a common
fashion and therefore results in reduced levels of survival related fears and
tensions. To survive with safety and comfort has always been the basic
instincts of humans and strength is always in the numbers. Any attempt to break
this logic accentuates the fear and is therefore not tolerated. However as
evolution progressed humans have learnt and realized that individual freedom is
also possible and can be placed on the same pedestal as community freedom. But
sadly some people have still not evolved.
For one group I would say that
the term ‘freedom of expression’ is meant to allow the voice of the weak to be
heard, against the atrocities of the powerful. It is not meant for hurting with
an intention to hurt, especially when there is no ground to justify the
resultant hurt. When the purpose is to ridicule, the idea of freedom of
expression should be used wisely, lest someone else takes advantage of it and
use it against them. Jesus has said to do onto others what you would want them
to do onto you. Secondly the need to ridicule arises because of a feeling of
superiority and inferiority on either side.
In a globalized world where man is dependent on each other for the
survival of human race, who is superior and who is inferior? If nature wanted
it so, then someone would have been born with an extra pair of arms.
For the other group I would suggest
to look inwards, introspect. What is there to lose? Is the faith so fragile
that a mere insult can destroy it? In India we say, when the Elephant walks the
Dogs always bark, but that does not affect the Elephant. It has faith in itself
and its strength. When the hurt community agitates and attacks the offender
community, they end up giving too much importance to them as well as make them
look justified, which is much unwarranted. To react to provocation and agitate
betrays a sense of inherent weakness instead of any strength. Rather to ignore
such irrational provocation would make the perpetrators look foolish as they
really are.