News of the killing of 10 cartoonists from the French satirical magazine, Charlie Hebdo by masked gunmen on January 7 has shocked the world. Liberal thinkers and journalists across the board have condemned this assault on free speech. However, there is a section that feels that a person’s right to assert his/her freedom of expression excludes the right to offend religious sensibilities. American Judicial philosopher and civil libertarian, Zechariah Chafee, an advocate for free speech who was described by Senator Joseph McCarthy as ‘dangerous’ to the United States had famously said. “Your right to swing your arms ends just where my nose begins.” This would imply that freedom of speech is not unfettered. There is a point where that freedom is self censored because of the need to live and let live. Alternatively there are liberals within this country and outside it who feel that freedom of speech and expression is absolute. In that case would we have libel laws where individuals who are offended by a particular news report or portrayal on television can seek redress?
Perhaps what merits discussion is the growing religious extremism and intolerance in the world today. Normally if a person or groups of persons of any religious persuasion are offended by a cartoon or writing of any kind, they can adopt civilised ways of protesting. They cannot massacre cartoonists, who, in any case, are only showing the mirror to a very intolerant, hate-filled, extremely illogical set of religious fanatics who use violence as a means to an end. This is a reality. The extreme cruelty of Islamic groups like the ISIS who make a public display of beheading journalists and co-religionists that refuse to uphold fundamentalist views are the challenges that the world of the 21st century – a century of great scientific discoveries which have changed the way we think, faces. Like CEM Joad says civilisation is like an oasis in the desert of lawlessness and medieval mindsets. Freethinkers constitute a very small constituency and while they believe that no idea should be immune to criticism or satire, they can only survive in a climate where free-thinking is tolerated. Is the world moving towards an era of absolute intolerance for satire and dissent? In India the tendency to ban movies, paintings and books has carried on unabated even while the Indian public has remained silent with only liberals voicing their angst. Time now to say, “Freethinkers of the world unite.”