Charlie Hebdo Incident – Can Buddhist Right Speech Stop such
Conflict?
We can
expect extreme actions and results to follow when peoples of two
extreme view clashes as can be seen from the Charlie Hebdo
incident. One wonders, can such incident be prevented from ever
happening again? Can we blame the people who approved and enshrine
all these Freedoms and Rights without any exceptions in their
countries’ constitutions, charters and declarations? Or do we go,
put all the blames on the religious groups that tolerate no
nonsense when it comes to insults targeted at their faith and
teachings? What happens to all those religious teaching on love and
tolerance, where have they disappear to?
Again, one
also wonders, can their differences ever be reconcile and settled?
Going by the latest news, certainly not if one and/or both sides
continue to act and behave like stubborn mules refusing to give way
a little to each other.
In fact,
Charlie Hebdo had come out on its latest Wednesday edition with
cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed again. Maybe encouraged by
the reported present of more than 1.6m people attending the march
in solidarity with the victims of the incidents which includes 40
world leaders. At the end of the day, did anyone come out with any
long lasting solution to the standoff?
We may not
have heard much from the Muslim world about this incident. But it
does not mean they are not sympathetic for the gunmen who carried
out the killing, after all, the act was done in the name of their
religion. It is not that anybody in their right mind would condone
the tragic loss of defenseless lives in this case.
Should such
a situation continue to persisted and allow to simmers, it may just
eventually lead to a full blown war resulting in the annihilation
of one or both sides and also other innocent people caught in the
middle. Hopefully, we will not be left in a mess and having to ask
questions as to why we have to suffer because of someone else
differences, intolerance and so called Rights.
Well, it is
easy enough to tell someone to be mindful, sensitive and to respect
others and be tolerance of each other’s differences and views. That
is what we have to repeatedly remind ourselves and others to do
even though more often than not such advice would fall on deaf
ears.
What we see
above, between Charlie Hebdo and the Muslim Extremists is a case of
Freedom of Speech against what Buddhist would term as Right
Speech.
Right
Speech in Buddhism would mean that one should refrain from speaking
outright lies, speech that torment oneself or harm others,
unfactual, unbeneficial, unendearing and what is disagreeable to
others. As for Freedom of Speech, we do find it enshrine in the UN
Universal Declaration of Human Rights and practices in liberal
democracies such as France. But speeches which Buddhism considered
to be not conducive for a peaceful existence are not censored in
these liberal democracies as one would find in more authoritarian
nations.
Until and
unless such rights are censored to a certain extent, Charlie Hebdo
will continue with their satire on religions as it
is marketable, in turn, extremists will always be targeting
them and other such companies for their rights to Freedom of
Expressions
It is
for countries that believe in the Right to Free Speech to balanced
this Right with some censorship, otherwise similar situations and
conflicts will continue to develop and fester between extremists on
both ends of the spectrum and leading to the creation of more
unnecessary chaos in this world.