‘What the Quran says about freedom of expression’

Quoting the Qur’an, the university don read thus; “O you who believe! If an evil-doer comes to you with a report, look carefully into it, lest you harm a people in ignorance, then be sorry for what  you have done”. (Suratul Hujurat Q49:06).  He added that this is what the Quran says about the freedom […]

Quoting the Qur’an, the university don read thus; “O you who believe! If an evil-doer comes to you with a report, look carefully into it, lest you harm a people in ignorance, then be sorry for what  you have done”. (Suratul Hujurat Q49:06).  He added that this is what the Quran says about the freedom of information or expression and people should be guided by it to advance further in all spheres.
Professor Mustapha made this submission last week at a workshop organized by the Centre for Qur’anic Studies of the Bayero University, Kano (BUK) in collaboration with the Nusre Educational and Cultural Institution where Islamic scholars from various tertiary institutions in the country and beyond converged to brainstorm on the theme  “Social Responsibility and Freedom of Expression from the Qur’anic Perspectives”.
Explaining further, the Director of the BUK’s Centre for Qur’anic Studies, Professor Ibrahim Mohammd said Islam guarantees the freedom of Information and expression.
He said “The purpose for organising this conference is to let people know what the Qur’an says about freedom of speech and freedom of expression. We want to tell the world that Islam guarantees freedom of speech and expression but if you want to do that there is limit and we are here to discuss this limitation and see the advantages and the disadvantages of freedom of speech and expression”.
Director of the Quranic Centre said the scholars will sit down during the conference to see “how we will verify it according to the teachings of the Qur’an. Freedom of expression doesn’t make you to abuse, insult or condemn others, so condemnation has nothing to do with freedom of expression in Islam. Islam doesn’t encourage condemnation of anybody. In essence, Islam respects everybody’s thought and idea provided that it is for the good and interest of mankind,” he said.
 He added; “Insulting and abusing one another as done in the media, especially on radio stations, is not supposed to be so. Islam teaches us that if you want to say something about your brother, you should say what is good or you keep quiet. “But talking ill of your brother, even if he commits a bad thing, Islam asks you to hide it not to explode and publicize. This is against the teachings of Islam. So if we want to stay in a society where harmony and peace shall reign we have to respect one another”.
 Shedding more light on the topic, the Editor of Hira  magazine in Turkey, Dr. Nawzad Sawash said people should be allowed to express themselves freely but that they must be guided by the teachings of Islam. “I think most of the Muslim world misunderstands the freedom of expression. The freedom of expression doesn’t mean offending the freedom of others by painting them in bad light or hauling insults on people by hiding under the pretence of exercising your right. Muslims world over are living in difficult situations; we are being tagged as terrorists as a few of us may indulge in acts of terrorism. The reason why Muslims are tagged as terrorists  is because of the way we interact with others. Therefore, there is need to reorient our fellow brothers and sisters in Islam on the proper conduct according to the teachings of our religion as taught by our prophet,” he said.
 Grand Imam of Kano state, Professor Sani Zahradeen said freedom of expression was well embedded in the Holy Quran and sayings of Prophet Mohammad (SAW). “Whatever we say here we will be made to account for it hereafter. So we have to be mindful of whatever we say and how we say  it. Also we need to know our social responsibilities,” Professor Zahradeen, who was one time Vice Chancellor of BUK said.
 Declaring open the workshop, the Vice Chancellor of the BUK, Professor Abubakar Adamu Rasheed said the outcome of the session would help humanity, saying freedom of information is an essential ingredient for socio-economic development.“I’m happy to be associated with this gathering because the essence of a university is to look into issues like this,” he said.