The limits of freedom

Double standards have screwed up the world - one rule for you and another for us. Muslims are as guilty of this duality as non-Muslims are, calling all and sundry "infidels" with great abandon, even twisting the intent of God if they have to. In the tears over the Danish embassy bomb last Monday, let the context not be lost. Our latest foreign secretary said that Pakistanis are "ashamed" of this incident. But can the same be said about the Danish people? They allowed their media to print and reprint and go on printing the blasphemous cartoons with great abandon too. I use the word "allowed" because public pressure can stop most things. I hope that they will now learn something from this horrible incident, that while all freedoms are highly desirable, they too have limits.

It's not a question of "freedom is indivisible" - sound-bytes that stick in the gullet are plain humbug that mean little and only mislead. The limits of freedom begin where the freedoms of others start getting transgressed. You have the right to express anything you like as long as it doesn't hurt others. Blasphemy serves no good whatsoever. If hurt feelings lead to death and destruction, what purpose has your freedom of expression served? To "prove" that Muslims are barbarians who cannot tolerate free expression without going on the rampage? After you taunt and goad them endlessly? Look, my dear Vikings, there is a raging beast lurking in all of us. It is easy to bring to the surface provided you are ready to become shameless. I tell you, it takes even less to goad people who tout all sorts of "freedoms" into becoming barbaric. The blasphemous cartoons were nothing but emotional, mental, religious and racial barbarism. What would you call a people who persistently hurt and humiliate 1.3 billion people to rile them into doing dastardly things just to prove that they are very bad people? Barbaric? Or Satanic? It was a sting operation of the most immoral kind. If you transgress the freedoms of others there should be a bloody good reason for it, like the "greater good" - save millions by sacrificing a few. How does blaspheming the prophet of any faith do any good defeats me. Go talk to the families of Monday's dead and tell them that their loved ones didn't die in vain. They are martyrs in the "greater" cause of "freedom of expression." Then hear what they have to say about your precious "freedom of expression."