By Abdurrahman Ashiru
I have always marvel at liberalists who purport to uphold secularism by defending blasphemy in the pretence of freedom of expression, even if hurts the religious sensibilities of more than 1.8 billion Muslims faithful across the globe. Let me remind them if they still want to listen that part of the core tenets of liberalism lies the idea of not doing anything that potentially causes another person’s suffering (physical or emotional). Is this not double standard or worse still a sheer hypocrisy?
Who then defines what is free and what is not; to what extent ‘free’ is still free without crossing boundaries? It’s my conviction that the whole freedom of expression hullabaloo is not more than a mirage- because upon crossing boundaries, to no one freedom is granted after expression.
No amount of blasphemy denigrates our noble prophet ﷺ as we can see the action is unpopular and stands condemned but it makes his standing even more popular. Michael H Hart the author of The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History said “My choice of Muhammad to lead the list of the world’s most influential persons may surprise some readers and may be questioned by others, but he was the only man in history who was supremely successful on both the religious and secular levels.”
This incidence calls for reflection and introspection. France has stood up for blasphemy while France has the backing of European Union. Then which country and union stand to safeguard our prophet? Turkey’s president Erdagon and Pakistani Prime minister Imran Khan have been on the forefront condemning in strongest terms what the so called secularists supported.
Enough is enough and this time around France is going to pay dearly for supporting and defending what can’t be condoned in any progressively sane clime. I’m impressed by the outpouring dissatisfaction by the aggrieved Muslims faithful on various social media platforms over the incidence and is very commendable! Let’s make our voice heard and boycott all known French products so as to serve as deterrent to others.
Silence in the wake of moral crisis is not neutrality but rather a grossly ruthless and unfeeling complicity! The free speech rhetoric is completely unsavoury to me and the West has always defined as ‘free speech’ mocking our prophet. This is unacceptable and I mean completely unacceptable because it hurts our religious sensibilities.
Where are the Middle Eastern countries? The world is seeing you. Opportunity still abounds to redeem yourself and not to make the world continue to believe that you are not more than a puppet for the West. Kudos to the individual Muslim clerics who have spoken against the sponsors of irreverence, you have done well for defending what you believe in, and for the sake of setting record straight, I have unreservedly condemned in strongest terms any blasphemous act coming from anyone and anywhere in the world.
Time and again, blasphemy has generated tumultuous outrage and capable of setting the world ablaze. Why can’t everyone hold to his beliefs without unnecessarily making pejorative insinuations either through spoken language or creative art just for the peace to reign.
I love you unapologetically to eternity O prophet Muhammad ﷺ and whoever intends to trespass against your nobility doesn’t really know you. You are the best person to have ever stepped on earth and your words will continue to echo on the horizons till the end of time.
Dr. Abdurrahman Ashiru writes from Maiduguri.
