JANUARY 15 — The acts of hugging and kissing tudung-clad female fans by South Korean K-pop band B1A4 at a recent concert have triggered an uproar, being interpreted by some local Muslim groups as molestation or sexual harassment.
Lawyers for Liberty executive director Eric Paulsen received a few death threats and was arrested over his tweet which allegedly accused the Malaysian Islamic Development Department (Jakim) of promoting extremism every Friday.
The two incidents took place in Malaysia in recent days are worthy of serious reflection, as the former highlighted the sensitive issue derived from cultural differences and religious taboos, while the latter triggered a debate on where is the bottom line of the freedom of expression.
It must be stressed that Paulsen’s remarks cannot be compared with the incident of Charlie Hebdo in France, but they both have sparked a vexed issue, namely whether some have gone beyond the boundaries of freedom of expression?
After French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo’s tragedy, France and many European countries launched the “I Am Charlie” movement as an expression of support for press freedom and freedom of expression.
However, if Charlie really appears everywhere in the world, what would happen?
Therefore, there are also voices of “I Am Not Charlie” in France, to condemn the brutality of the gunmen, while expressing their disagreement with Charlie Hebdo’s acts of insulting Islam and other religions.
London-based editor and executive producer Salah-Aldeen Khadr also questioned whether the Charlie attack was really against the freedom of expression, and opined that it would be more appropriate to describe it as “a clash of extremist fringes”.
It showed us a fact that we must take seriously, namely whether we are holding a double standard when facing equally fanatical behaviours, as well as whether we have on this hand condemned extreme and violent acts and on the other, condoned extreme acts and abuse of freedom.
We advocate the moderation movement and we condemn all extreme and violent acts. It is of course an uncompromisable principle, but we should also ask ourselves, when we accuse others of extremism, have we also fallen into the quagmire of extremism, intentionally or unintentionally tolerating some remarks discriminating against something, harming and offending others?
At this moment, we should see clearly that terrorism does not equal to Islam.
A number of recent terrorist attacks are acts of a small number of Muslims or Islamic groups that have gone extreme, instead of the majority Muslims who are peace-loving and rational good people. We must never judge them with prejudice and label all Muslims as extremists.
Undeniably, the current world is losing law and order. Excessive emphasis on religion and the abuse of freedom of expression have become a two-edged sword, continuously hurting others, as well as ourselves. It is a huge crisis that the whole world is currently facing.
For Malaysians, we need to defend democracy, freedom and human rights while opposing against extreme words and deeds in any forms.
We should bear in mind that the freedom of expression and mutual respect are always equally important!
* This is the personal opinion of the writer or organisation and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail Online.
