Both the publication and nature of the caricatures, and the violent protests together have received equal condemnation from many in the Muslim, Christian and secular world and the debate is a highly sensitive one that can easily bring out emotive and charged feelings whichever side of the fence one sits on.
The angle that the media has taken on the protests is to play off the right to freedom of speech - and therefore a free media, for better or for worse - against the right of the individual to not be offended and insulted.
But what is interesting about these kinds of legalistic/philosophical analyses of the interplay between these two rights is the way in which they remove any aspect of the human as a real and living person with feelings on the inside.
The newspapers displayed a (not entirely surprising) lack of sensitivity towards the feelings of Muslims and would defend that decision as their right to do so.If there is both sides put love as the motive then all rights are automatically covered for both parties without harm to either concerned.
But we need to start going one step higher than thinking only on the level of rights, and go to the level of love. If both sides put love as the motive then all rights are automatically covered for both parties without harm to either concerned.
In any case, right does not entail obligation, certainly where it can seriously and insensitively encroach on the rights and feelings of the other person. Essentially, the right to freedom of speech could have been freely exercised without the degree of insensitivity revealed by the caricatures and their publication.
On the other side, the violent protest, and even the level of anger displayed certainly do not have any justification. The protestors, in seeking to rectify the misunderstandings about their faith, should have shown the greater love to the ones who had insulted them and by this love educated them on their faith.
Certainly what is alarming about the violent outbreaks, at least from a Christian perspective, is the fact that a not inconsiderable number involved the targeting of churches and Christian buildings, not to mention the additional number of attacks on individual Christians suspected to be related to the protests.These attacks revealed a very interesting dynamic that should concern deeply any Christian: not only is protest against the West blurred with protest against the Christian Church, but the protests have also revealed a heightening polarisation between followers of Islam and followers of Christianity.
Christians need to be aware of this situation and the urgent need for the love of the Gospel to be shared with all people of the world and become the motive in all actions. Christians need to check that they are really revealing this love with their lives, their words and their actions, now more than ever before, and make sure that they are the living example of Christ’s love for people around the world to follow.
