What a sad and strange world ours is. A stupid film incenses some Muslims and they go on a rampage. The US Secretary of State has to pronounce herself on why the USA and the free world cannot stop such films from being produced because of the right of free speech. She also goes on to say how abominable this film is.
Not all Muslims can be blamed—far from it in fact. The rot in some apples does not reflect the state of the apple itself but what might be found in apples and all other sorts of fruit. Just because some madmen in the USA —supposedly in the name of Christ or anything Christian—bombed an abortion clinic to show their contempt of abortion, in the process maiming and killing people, this does not mean all Christians or Catholics are killers and madmen.
All intolerance is terrible and all attacks against the right of free speech are to be condemned with no qualifiers at all. That the film depicting Mohammed was gross in its execution has no relevance. The film-maker should still be allowed to say what he wanted to say. If the film goes against the law then prosecute. But if the law, in any way, is an infringement of his inalienable right to poke fun, comment or interpret history then that law should be repealed immediately.
If a film, a work of art or a book causes offence there is a better way to show condemnation. This is more effective than the burning of books, the scourging of the film-maker or the announcement of a fatwa, as was done to Salmon Rushdie, a few decades ago. What can be done is the right everyone has to not watch, not comment and not publicise the film, book or art. If something offends me all I do is use my feet to show my dissent—by leaving and disregarding whatever offends me.
And we should make sure we do not accept this flavour of repression here in Malta. It is not just the laws of censorship which should worry us. The recent talk of condemnation of a foreign priest whose blog dared insult the memory of a local politician who had just died, and the constant talk of how a blogger should be stopped or curtailed is nearly as worrying as attacks on embassies. The freedom to state all you want, in whatever way you want, should be defended by the politicians of the day. Anyone asking the priest or the blogger from Bidnija to shut up is wrong.The latter represents no one and thus no prime minister, minister or celebrity can stop her from expressing herself. If people are offended by her they should refrain from reading her blog or articles. If she breaks the law—unless the law is an ass—she should be prosecuted for that.
No witch hunt of bloggers, film-makers or authors will stop the free world from being free if the seeds of tyranny and intolerance are eradicated immediately.