Praising the ideals of free speech, describing it as a “fundamental human right” and a duty, Pope Francis recently asked to outlaw offensive speech. The idea of “free speech” does not mean people can express even the most extreme and offensive views or can dishonour any religious sacred. The Pope suggested that certain speech — such as offensive comments about religion — is so inherently provocative that it is “normal” for it to result in violence. Amidst the buzzing confrontation between freedom of speech and freedom of religion after the killings of 12 people at the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo’s office for publishing contemptuous and disrespectful cartoons of Prophet Muhammad (Sm), the Pope’s comment is considered empirical.Pope Francis, when he was en route to the Philippines from Sri Lanka during his just concluded Asian Tour, said that there are limits to free speech, especially when it ridicules or insults someone’s faith. To illustrate that point, Pope Francis constructed a hypothetical scenario about how angry and violent he would become if someone had insulted his mother. “If my good friend Dr. Gasparri says a curse word against my mother, he can expect a punch,” the Pope said, making a punching gesture towards Gasparri, an aide who was standing near him at the time. By this, the Pope did not justify the terrorist attack against the satirical French weekly, which had published inflammatory cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad (Sm) as the Pope condemned all violence committed in God’s name.In France, speech that incites hatred against an individual or group based on their religion, race, ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation is illegal. To deny holocaust against the Jews is an offence even in France. Similar rules are in place in other European countries, including Denmark, which criminalizes speech that “spreads racial hatred,” and the United Kingdom, which criminalizes speech and written material that are likely to “stir up racial hatred.” People should refrain from insulting religion for the same reason as the tools of hate speech was used to run the Holocaust. And hate speech — terrorist, extremist, uneducated, uncultured and jihadist — against Muslims in the Europe and America had enabled legitimized them to kill Muslims that also ironically raise extremism among Muslim youths. According to Pope, people who speak badly about religions or other religions, who make fun of them, who make a game out of the religions of others are provocateurs and if they go past the “limit” of acceptable speech, violent retaliation is to be expected. Islam is a powerful religion and those cutting jokes about the Prophet Muhammad are enemies of peace and they are sick people. They must be stopped. They want a clash of civilizations between the Muslims and the Christians. We are suspicious about the role played by Israel in fomenting such a clash.
