Freedom of Speech and Peaceful Protest

Freedom of Speech and Peaceful Protest

As always, technology can be used for good and evil goals. As you know, a suspicious and dark man directed a so called film named ‘Innocence of Muslims’ to insult Prophet Muhammad and provoke Muslims all around the world. According to the news, the director of the film has some troubles due to illegal activities, has suspicious personality, and some actors say that they were not told the truth about topic of the film.

The film was posted on YouTube at anniversary of the 9/11 attacks with Arabic subtitles. Then, this event has spread quickly in the Muslim world by social media and the internet. Consequently, American ambassador to Libya and other three personnel were killed by the provoked people. This result was exactly what the creators and distributors of the film wanted.

Islamic scholars condemned the killings saying that killing innocent and irrelevant people or using suicide bombings to kill people indiscriminately are not appropriate Muslim behavior. Just as insulting Muslims and their values cannot be assessed as freedom of thought and speech, Muslims should react the insulting by peaceful protests.

Ahmet Kaya