Many people in Maldives, today talk about the right to express. But what is a right without any responsibility? Should we be able to say anything we wish to say and express anything we want to express and face no consequences?
Free speech without any limit has many implications. To protect the society from greater harm, such freedoms should be limited. For example, let’s take the recent case at Katti Hivvaru festival where someone painted naked women and captioned it with words from the Quran. Of course, a lot of people defended it saying that “Alif Laam Meem” are just letters in Arabic and not exclusive to Quran. But if we think about it we know that these letters are not random and are mentioned in the Quran more than once. It would be a different story if it were something random like “Alif, Baa and Thaa”. But that was not the case.
Anyway, some of the people who defended this said that it was the artist’s right to express his/her own opinion and that it should be respected. But should this right have no limits to it ? What about the right of everyone else to not be insulted? Maldivians are Muslims and the dominant ideology in the society is Islam. Depicting images that insult Islam and then claim it as freedom of speech is just irresponsible and foolish. The people who defended this say that people should learn to be more tolerant. But isn’t insulting another person’s faith a sign of intolerance as well ?
Most of these people who preach about freedom of expression show western societies as examples. Maybe they are just ignorant or chose to ignore the fact that people in the west are not so “free” to express whatever they want. For instance, it is punishable by law to deny the holocaust in many western European countries. Insulting the monarch or the royal family is also punishable by law in many European countries with active royal families. Of course, however it is not a crime to insult Islam or present day Islamic leaders. They defend it saying that it is freedom of expression. In one aspect, it is quite understandable. The dominant ideology in these societies is not Islam. Their dominant ideologies are protected by law and freedom of expression does not allow people to insult these ideologies.
If we apply the same principles to our society, then freedom of expression should be limited. Especially in matters that concern the whole country, people should not be able to say whatever they want irresponsibly. For the past decade, Maldivians could say whatever they want without much consequences and today we can see how much damage it has done to the society. So, freedom to express should be regulated and Maldivians should understand that freedom of expression does not mean yapping all the time!
Freedom of expression should be limited!
