Faith and Reason: In mocking Jesus, Moses, Bhudda, and Krishna, has South Park gone too far?

Try it.  Try promoting a society of mutual respect and accord. Ignore those who insult for the sake of insulting.  Send a message to the world that as a society, proof of our freedom of speech does not depend on demonstrations through mindless insults.

Ahmadiyya Times | News Staff | Opinion
Source & Credit: Chicago Islam Examiner
By Qasim Rashid | Chicago, IL | April 27, 2010

Though the bulk of the hype around the controversial show is passing, the after effects will long remain.  In the battle for freedom of speech, it seems that we as a society have forgotten its fundamental purpose.  Free speech, historically, was never about ridiculing or insulting others.  Rather, it was about the right to speak out from oppression and persecution.  It was about righting a wrong.  When people spat in our faces, we didn't spit back.  Rather, we took the high road and lead through our example.

American heroes like Dr. Martin Luther King, Thurgood Marshall, Eleanor Roosevelt, and our Founding Fathers championed freedom of speech and freedom of thought—but not to insult or ridicule.

Sure, they presented ideas contrary to the status quo and certainly ideas some took issue with.  However, the difference was that their efforts in freedom of speech contested ideas and false perceptions of truth, but were not an assault on people.
 They did not put down another race or individual, but promoted mankind as a whole.  This is why their message was successful.  This is why they are to this day remembered as our greatest heroes.  Because their message served a noble purpose.

But what is noble about depicting Prophet Buddha as a drug addict, graphically snorting several lines of cocaine?  Why is Prophet Jesus regularly disrespected, most recently watching internet vulgarity and desecrating our Nations flag?  Prophet Moses championed the Unity of God, yet he is worshipped by Jewish boy scouts.  Prophet Krishna took the human form of Neil Diamond and performed a duet with the Godzilla-ized version of Barbra Streisand.

Islam champions freedom of thought and forbids compulsion in such matters. (HQ 2:256). However, a restriction on compulsion of thought and a promotion of vulgarity in the name of free speech are quite different phenomenon.

Has it become impossible to express freedom of speech without resorting to offensive depictions of some of history's most beloved individuals?  Why is it more funny, or funny at all to have such people derided and mocked? We don't mock contemporary heroes such as Dr. King, who, looked to personages like Prophet Jesus for their inspiration.  Then, why malign the legacy of the people who revolutionized our world?

As Islam champions freedom of thought, it also asks the individual to take personal responsibility and not use that freedom to deride others. "O ye who believe! let not one people deride another people, who may be better than they, nor let women deride other women, who may be better than they. And defame not your own people..."(HQ 49:12)

However, in dealing with those who insist on insulting, Islam gives the following advice, "...when you hear the Signs of God being denied and mocked at, sit not with them until they engage in a talk other than that; for in that case you would be like them." (HQ 4:140).  Islam doesn't prescribe punishment for such people.  Islam only prescribes leaving the company of such people until they decide to express themselves in "a talk other than that."

Try it.  Try promoting a society of mutual respect and accord. Ignore those who insult for the sake of insulting.  Send a message to the world that as a society, proof of our freedom of speech does not depend on demonstrations through mindless insults.  If the best reason to insult boils down to either "because they started it," or "because we legally can," perhaps we haven't come as far as we thought.

Freedom of speech is a fundamental necessity of every successful society, yes.  But, let us not slay the characters of the very men who are the heroes of our modern heroes, and the fathers of our faiths.  For in doing so we only slay ourselves.

Read original article here: In mocking Jesus, Moses, Bhudda, and Krishna, has South Park gone too far?


Qasim Rashid is a contributing member of Majlis Sultanul Qalm, USA (MSQ USA) and regularly writes for Examiner.com and various other publications on topics ranging from Islam to human rights. Leave your thoughts and comments, or email Qasim at 1muslim.examiner@gmail.com