Saturday, December 10, 2011

Are religious people actually in favour of Freedom of speech ?

Dear Readers, I am writing this blog when there is a big debate on censoring free speech.Most of this censoring stuff is put forward by the Indian govt and no one is for it.But the thing is the level of acceptance of things which are different from their ones primary beliefs/superstitions/faiths is very less because most of the common people are conservative and my guess is 80% of the people in any group tend to be conservatives.Now Freedom of speech is sacrosanct in western democracies and it will remain so because of their dark ages past and how they scrapped through and came out off it.Throughout the middle ages better known as dark ages Europe was controlled by the Vatican.Anything that is different from the catholic principles is heresy.People were tortured for difference in opinion with the church and killed if they don't change their opinion.Europe came out of dark ages through renaissance thanks to several revolutions and all people who wanted progress allowed freedom of speech.People like Voltaire always wanted separation of church and state.This is the definition of secularism.But the India defenition of secularism is equal respect for all religions.This definition is reflection of society and based on the tolerance levels of different cultures.Whenever the debate on censoring free speech the first person comes to the discussion table is MF Hussain who is considered as Indian Picasso in the art department.While anyone who fights for freedom of expression will defend the right of him to draw nude images of any hindu Goddess.This is because Hinduism is pantheistic and accepts anything as God.But critics question what where MF Hussains intention in drawing nude pictures of hindu goddess when he knew very well this will affect the minds of believers.However art should not have any restrictions and its the freedom of the artist to express his thought.He is a normal practicing muslim who religiously puts 'Allahu' in all of his paintings and settled in Qatar after there were series of cases against him for his 'obscene' paintings.Now he could have simply went to court and said that my intention was not to hurt anyone's sentiments and I was inspired by Khajuraho sculptures and I drew these based on that.And for starters Khajuraho is famous for nude sculptures and various positions of sex described in the famous sex book called Kamasutra and some of the sculptures include that of bestiality.Intrestingly MF Hussain was defended in court by union minister Kapil Sibals son.Now Kapil Siba still says I will defend freedom of expression of anyone who wants to express their art. Now there is hypocrisy when it comes to secularism in tolerating art of any kind .As we know by experience one group of people's tolerance should not be taken for granted.A section of hindu right wing conservatives don't allow anything obscene basically censoring another section of hindu right wing who may be ready to accept liberalism towards art always points out why do you give special concession to islam and give step motherly treatment to Hinduism.The question is correct in my opinion.Its psychology 101 if there are two kids and if one kid is given a new dress the other kid is going to ask for new dress.It is common knowledge that Islam commands special restraint when it comes to art and freedom of expression.Because unlike other religions Islam is still to undergo any renaissance or any other transformation.Blasphemy is treated either with stoning or with death threats or 500 lashings which will obviously result in death.Countries with Islamic majority always run under Shariah law a law based on Quran and teachings of the Prophet Mohammed a 7th century uneducated peasant.As per the primary faith of muslims the Quran is the final direct message from the one true God Allah sent through his last messenger Mohammad.I have not read the Quran cover to cover neither I can because its written in Arabic which is spoken hardly 5% of its followers.I have listened part of its translation mostly from Dr.Zakir Naik who is a televangelist who converts people to islam.I must say he is an impressive speaker thanks to his incredible memory power he quotes verses left and right not only from the Quran also from the Bible and Hindu literature.But the truth is the Quran to my knowledge is upgraded/plagiarized version of the old testament,new testament,greek philosophy,7th century science and few Indian proverbs.The God Allah is nothing but reincarnation of Yahweh the blood thirsty God of the Old testament better known as the Father of Jesus.As per Islamic theology one cannot draw pictures of any Prophet or should not worship any idols.This was because even though judaism is monotheistic religion Nazarene's better known as Christianity or followers of Jesus Christ of Nazareth were worhsipping Jesus as son of God with idols of him dying on the cross.Throughout the history,islam generally spread through the sword by overpowering culture after culture.First they destroyed Persian civilization then they destroyed Indus valley civilization continued till Indonesia with their invasion.They fought crusade after crusade in Europe with the Christians and Jews to establish who controls which part.Now throughout Islamic history any form of dissent to rulers was curtailed with iron fist.The 21st century is a century better known for clash of civilizations.We have a western civilization which has lived under freedom and democracy while the Islamic world lived under totalitarian dictatorships,Saudi Arabia,Egypt,Libya,Syria,Iraq,Tunisia.Christpher Hitchens celebrated author/columnist/atheist once described about an incident in Baghdad.This may well be a made up one but could have very well happened.One fine day in coffee shop of Baghdad a person accidentally spilled coffee on a newspaper which contained the image of Saddam Hussain.Everyone in the cofee shop become quiet and two gaurds come and pick up that guy,enquires about his family,asks them to assemble in the police station,tortures him in front of their family and they should applaud the mighty dictator Saddam Hussain.Now this is the case if he said something against an ordinary ruler imagine what would be the punishment if he commits blasphemous images or articles about God or his messenger.I must say there are brave souls in islamic history despite death penalties for apostates.Islam to me is a totalitarian ideology just like the communism.A Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh worked with the Somali-born writer Ayaan Hirsi Ali to produce the film Submission, which criticized the treatment of women in Islam and aroused controversy among Muslims.This is not an isolated incident.In 1980s Salman Rushdie a Indian Muslim/agnostic wrote a novel called Satanic verses which was referring to an imaginary prophet who shared his name with Prophet Mohammed.A fatwa was issued to kill Salman Rushdie by Ayotollah of Iran.The Fatwa cannot be repealed as the Ayotollah is nomore and the Fatwa still remains.People who translated the book in other languages were attacked and some were killed. Dutch Cartoonists who drew 'demeaning' pictures of the Prophet were given death threats and Dutch embassies were bombed in Libya and few people were killed.A minister from UP a state in India offered 50 lakh Rupees nearly $100,000 million for the slayed head of the cartoonists. None of the cowards in the media will even raise their voices against such an atrocious act because the reason is simple,people fear violence and they don't like to dissent.Death threats are the easiest way to silence critics.One of the recent attempts to overcome this sort of violence was "Everybody Draw MOhammad day" an online protest by a cartoonist Molly Norris from Seattle Washinton on May 20 2010.The mainstream media generally avoided coverage but a decent success online.Since it was online many thought it would not have any big repercussions in real life.But Molly Norris got several potential death threats.After several death threats the FBI decided to destroy her identity and inorder to protect her name was changed and her location was undisclosed r.Now thats something appalling.Some of the cartoons in Everybody Draw Mohammad were demeaning but nevertheless Facebook did not delete them.Because of these images Pakistan banned Facebook for two weeks and asked FB to remove these images and FB refused and hence Pakistan courts ordered their telecom companies to block such pages. A US pastor named Terry Jones wanted to burn the Quran to commemorate Sept 11 twin tower attack anniversary condemning Islamic ideology.People like Obama Hillary Clinton opposed this saying You have the right to do it but please don't do it for the sake of our soldiers.He finally dropped the idea but the idea spread like fire and a youtuber popularly known as TheAmazingAtheist made a satture on this.Barka Dutt called the pastor Looney because he wanted to burn the Quran.I am sure she never called MF Hussain Looney. Now here is a question to all my religious friends.Do you actually hold freedom of expression above their faith.Read the below lines and choose one of these.The Kaaba in Mecca is considered as the most holy place for muslims and it is considered as one of the 5 important duties of every muslim to visit the Kaaba.But what actually resides in Kaaba is nothing but a black stone in the shape of a Vagina.Muslims kiss the Blackstone just because their prophet kissed the Blackstone.And no one cannot wear any inner garments while doing this.Some say the stone was sent by Allah.The stone was originally white and it is believed that it sucked the sins of people who kiss it. Throughout Pagan Arab history people licked,sucked,tongued,kissed the black stone and Mecca was a place where there were 365 idols and Mohammad's father Abdullah meaning slave of Allah(a Pagan God name) was a Pagan himself.Its often said that a shiv lingam is inside the Kaaba sorry to disappoint you friends your shiv lingam represents nothing but an erect penis.May be if not can you explain what it is?If you are Lord Ram worshipper can you tell me what is Aswamedha Yagna or Yagam whatever name you give.My view is that King Dussertha despite possessing 60,000 wives as per some folk stories or at least 4 wives as per the actual story of Ramyanam did not have any children.Which would mean he was impotent by any medical standards.He conducted a Aswamedha Yagnam where a horse was chosen and after 1 and half years it was sacrificed and its genitals are taken and two words namely bestiality and necrophilia acts were performed in the private parts of Kausalya and other three wives of Dusseratha. In my opinion Christians generally hate gays and I am sorry if you are one of those liberal Christians or conservative Gays who don't hate gays fine but your God Yahweh hate gays as per Genesis chapter 19.Yahweh burnt the whole city of Saddam and Gamorah when men of those towns tried to rape the male angels despite Lot offering his married virgin daughters.And it is clear from Leviticus and Deutronomy he wants Homosexuals to be put to death and christian countries like Uganda want to implement it.And whenever a US military person is dead some extreme right wing Christians carry a picture God hates Fags and you are going straight to hell.I don't think there cant be anything offensive than this but freedom of speech includes this one too.I seriously think Mary was a whore who committed adultery who would have been stoned to death in 1 st century of Jewish town Nazareth.She lied to Joseph that Holy spirit conceived her.Unless you are a fan of The Da Vinci Code why was Jesus roaming with 12 guys who were specifically asked to forbid their family.One thing comes to my mind is Jesus was himself a homosexual and I find no other reason for his celibacy.And I have a right to say this too.Also I have a right to say Jesus never died on the cross,he used his body double and make believe the world he died on the cross and came back on the third day. Now the above statements are blasphemous and anyone who reads will get extremely angry and call me names,hurl me abuses,curse me because it might be something against their perception/faith/belief.People who were advocating freedom of speech will now rethink their stand on censorship.But the truth is whatever I said is a fact according to me and my personal research and however it is offensive I have the right to say it and you don't have the right to censor me Period.Religion and faith blinds people and they want to censor it because they knew if it spreads it may cause deep impact to their psychology.But the fact is freedom of expression supersedes your right to get offended and you cannot control information in a free world and the more you try to suppress the more it will grow.I recommend to have extremely strong faith in god and thick skin and tolerant attitude towards what you see and read