Occidental Malakut

This is not an issue of limiting the boundaries of free speech. It is a question of harnessing racial and religious discrimination and provocative, insulting and harassing behaviour. Republishing those cartoons was simply fuelling a fire which did not have to be lit at all. Is free speech only promoted by drawing a cartoon of the Prophet of over one billion Muslims? Are these cartoons helping us in anyway to eradicate poverty, illiteracy and violence around the world of Islam?

The result is obvious. What was the end of these cartoons? What were they meant to achieve in the first place? Now what is the purpose of stirring the troubled waters again? Politicians all around the world, regardless of their faith, can play a vital role in calming the situation. I have always admired the thoughtfulness and discretion of British politicians. We just saw one example of it in London bombings in July where the Prime Minister and the Mayor of London very courageously dismissed any ideas of racial or religious hatred against Muslims in general, while at the same time condemning the brutal acts. I witnessed the same logical, solid and respectable reaction from the government tonight in Jack Straw’s remarks, where he said, “There is freedom of speech, we all respect that. But there is not any obligation to insult or to be gratuitously inflammatory.” I hope extremists would not call Jack Straw a Muslim radical who does not know the meaning of free speech!

Read the full story of Straw’s remarks in BBC: Straw condemns cartoon row press.