“There is a new update available for notepad++”, was the message I received this evening when I tried to edit a text file using this program. Even though, the file I wanted to edit was important, and I had no use to update to a newer version, I clicked on the update button regardless.
For those of you who don’t know notepad++, it is an open source text editing program that is freely available under the GPL v2 license.
Anyway, the update process didn’t take more than a minute, and there I was with the latest version of my favorite text editing program. An unknown sense of happiness engulfed me when the update process completed. Though as I said, this update had no value for me whatsoever. All I wanted was to edit a simple text file. But still, I was feeling happy.
However, as the updated version of this program opened, I saw a message being written in favour of Charlie Hebdo and free speech which I am going to paste here as it is.
[box]Freedom of expression is like the air we breathe, we don’t feel it, until people take it away from us.
For this reason, Je suis Charlie, not because I endorse everything they published, but because I cherish the right to speak out freely without risk even when it offends others.
And no, you cannot just take someone’s life for whatever he/she expressed.
Hence this “Je suis Charlie” edition.
– #JeSuisCharlie[/box]
The developers of notepad++ had named this new version as, “Je Suis Charlie Edition”. And, had even gone ahead to code a special plugin that would automatically write the above message to all people upon installing it.
The happiness I was feeling a second earlier vanished as mysteriously as it had come. Even though, I did not disagree with the gist of the message, still, I did not like what was being written.
However, being an avid reader of Psychology, I knew both the feeling of happiness after the update and the loss of that very happiness a second later were not without any reason. There is always a reason somewhere in our subconscious mind when we feel happy or sad for no reason; we just fail to find it.
With a little introspection, I came to the conclusion that the happiness I felt was because my subconscious mind knew that with each update of a program, we get new exciting features and possible bug fixes. Each update is intended to make life easier for people. It always has a positive energy associated with it. And, it was this positivity that made me happy, not because the update served me any purpose.
While the vanishing of this happiness upon seeing the developer’s message had a similar reason. I had seen first hand how people were hurt by Charlie Hebdo’s decision to exercise its right to, so-called, “Free Speech” by publishing caricatures of Prophet Muhammad. And also, due to the sad incident of 7th January when two gunmen killed 11 people of this publication. Both of these reasons had an effect on the disappearance of my happiness.
But then I then asked myself, “Suis je Charlie?”. And honestly, I didn’t feel Charlie at all. Because unlike Charlie, I do not exercise my right to free speech when I know it would hurt the feelings of a person or a group of persons. Just because I have power do an act, doesn’t mean I must do it. Especially when I know it would be detrimental to the collective peace of society.
It is very easy to come up with things that would hurt people. Because hurting people is probably the most easiest thing to do. We all know the weak spots of different races and religions. Just by saying a few words, I know I can hurt millions of people of the world. But the questions is why? Just to let them know that I can?
Right to free speech is but one of the many forms of freedoms. Having achieved this freedom does not mean we can impede on the rights of other people. As they too have right to have a respectful life, to live without being subjected to hate, and to follow their religion the way they want.
Now, Prophet Muhammad is sacred to almost 1.5 billion Muslims of the world. Hence naturally, if someone would try to demean him by drawing his derogatory caricatures, it would hurt the sentiments of all Muslims who love him so dearly. The publication knows this fact, and yet again it acts like a bully and publishes these drawings to achieve just that.
And no, doing this is not their right to free speech because freedom to freely express oneself does not mean one gets a ticket to insult and hurt others. This is probably why different countries of the world have laws to protect people against such kind of insults and hate speech.
Section 4A of United Kingdom’s Public Order Act 1986 states the following.
[box](1) A person is guilty of an offence if, with intent to cause a person harassment, alarm or distress, he— (a) uses threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour, or disorderly behaviour, or (b) displays any writing, sign or other visible representation which is threatening, abusive or insulting, thereby causing that or another person harassment, alarm or distress.[/box]
While Germany’s Criminal Code has the following sections against hate speech and insult.
[box]
Section 130 says
(1) Whoever, in a manner that is capable of disturbing the public peace:
- incites hatred against segments of the population or calls for violent or arbitrary measures against them; or
- assaults the human dignity of others by insulting, maliciously maligning, or defaming segments of the population,
shall be punished with imprisonment from three months to five years.
Section 189 says
Whoever disparages the memory of a deceased person shall be punished with imprisonment for not more than two years or a fine.[/box]
Furthermore, the Denial of Holocaust Law of the state of Israel prohibits saying or publication of anything that would deny Holocaust or sympathize with Nazis. Because obviously, it would hurt the sentiments of Jewish people.
[box]A person who, in writing or by word of mouth, publishes any statement denying or diminishing the proportions of acts committed in the period of the Nazi regime, which are crimes against the Jewish people or crimes against humanity, with intent to defend the perpetrators of those acts or to express sympathy or identification with them, shall be liable to imprisonment for a term of five years.[/box]
These countries have criminalized these acts because humans do get affected by insults and hate speech. It’s human nature.
This is why I say, “Je ne suis pas Charlie”. And, I would never want to become a Charlie to present myself a proponent of free speech. Becoming Charlie is not a yardstick to measure how much someone is pro free speech. They are not synonymous. In fact, Charlie Hebdo does not represent free speech in the same way those terrorists who attacked them do not represent Islam.
If anything, they represent the same destructive mindset that we see in those terrorists. One sells us hate speech in the guise of freedom of expression. While the other element misrepresents a religion whose very name is “Islam meaning Peace” and say that they could kill and terrorize at will with impunity. Both distort and misuse two pure concepts.
Thus, let me say it out loud that I am not a Charlie or a terrorist and I am pro free speech. What about you?
