Charlie Hebdo: Freedom to offend?

Among those killed was Stephane Charbonnier, 47, the magazine’s editor. It is condemnable to go and kill people in cold blood. And the western countries have taken the attack as an attack against free speech.According them, and the Charlie Hebdo magazine in particular, has the right to caricature anybody, including religious figures no matter how […]

Among those killed was Stephane Charbonnier, 47, the magazine’s editor. It is condemnable to go and kill people in cold blood. And the western countries have taken the attack as an attack against free speech.
According them, and the Charlie Hebdo magazine in particular, has the right to caricature anybody, including religious figures no matter how sacrosanct they are held by the adherents of the religion.
In other words the publication has the right to mock, insult, debase and so  on, but you have to accept it, because of what they call their western values. And your value here doesn’t count; it should not even come up, because you are not entitled to it. It is like you must accept their so-called western values or if not you are backward and against free speech.
The depiction of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) in whatever form, is taboo and heresy in Islam.
 Stephane Cahrbonnier said, “I am not afraid of retaliation. I have no children, no wife, no car, no credit,” he said after receiving death threats two years ago.
He   also spoke against political correctness, saying, “It should be as normal to criticise Islam as it is to criticise Jews or Catholics.”
Nonetheless, in their total disregard for the feelings of Muslims all over the world, the Charlie Hebdo magazine, in defiance, published a special edition on Wednesday  with the cartoon of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) on the cover. Millions of copies were printed as against its usual 60,000 copies.
They said the terrorists could not silence them, and in solidarity with the magazine , French readers queued up at dawn to buy copies.
In its continual provocation in its November 3,  2011 edition, the magazine renamed it “Charia Hebdo” in reference to sharia’a law depicting Prophet Muhammad.
Yet in September 2012, it published a series of cartoons depicting the prophet.
 It seems as if they were actually pushing or hoping for some attack.
It is on record that, in 2006 French President Jacques Chirac had condemned the Charlie Hebdo February 9, edition depicting Prophet Muahmmad (PBUH).
“Anything that can hurt the convictions of someone else, in particular religious convictions, should be avoided,” he said.
Also  earlier, the United States had criticised depictions of the Muslim prophet while defending free speech rights.
In 2006, the Bush administration described such cartoons in a Danish newspaper as offensive.
In 2012, the Obama administration questioned the judgment of Charlie Hebdo for similar depictions, saying they could be inflammatory.
In any case, the west and others that adhere to their free speech no matter who is offended should have a re-think, because no matter what, it is better to live cordially among people of different beliefs than to provoke and incite people into violence.
Muslims and Islam have been demonised with all manner of labels such as fundamentalists, Islamists, extremists, and terrorists among others.
It is like the west, having lost regard for religion or even God is intimidated by the strong faith of Muslims. They couldn’t believe that some people follow the dictates of their religion seriously.
As such they do all they can to undermine Islam and Muslims, portraying Islam as backward, and that it oppresses women in order to make the Muslim women revolt and embrace  the unIslamic way of life in the name of freedom and civilisation.
If only they will  do their own thing, according to their ‘values’ and leave Muslims’ values out of their ‘free speech’.
It seems the Charlie Hebdo magazine  has an obsession with provoking Muslims, but free speech should not be an excuse to offend.