This just in from The Daily Star: "Lebanon’s state prosecutor ordered Tuesday the arrest of individuals behind the distribution of flyers in Beirut carrying a distorted image of Saudi King Abdullah. “Judge Hatem Madi tasked the Criminal Investigations Bureau to launch a probe to determine the identity of the individuals responsible for this act, locate them, arrest them and refer them to the judiciary.”
In a separate move, the judge also ordered the arrest of Al Watan Newspaper caricaturist and editor in chief for the same reasons which prompted him to arrest the people who perpetrated the act above (after all, the act in question came as a retaliation for the Al Watan caricature of Patriarch Bechara Al Rahi).
As you may have guessed the second part of this post is not true, but, question is: Why not? The reasons behind locating, arresting and referring the people responsible for the act to the judiciary, should be exactly the same for having the editor and the caricaturist of Al Watan located, arrested and referred to the judiciary.
The patriarch is an important religious figure (he is the patriach or Antioch and the rest of the Levant) just as the King of Saudi Arabia is (the king of KSA is labelled as the custodian of the two holy mosques)
The patriarch is a political figure and so is the king.
The patriarch is Christian and the king is... not.... So I suppose this is where the comparison stops.
So, let's go back to the right of ridiculing religions. ALL religions! If we play on an even field, maybe there is hope for progress, somewhere, somehow.
5 comments:
so much for free speech :)
WHAT free speech? I am not even sure we ever had it!
yeah, thats what I mean. since when does the state prosecutor have the authority to arrest journalists and other people for exercising their right to free speech? isn't this a fundamental right in our constitution and a basic human right?
My problem above all is with the double standards - either we are allowed to criticize all political and religious figures... or no one! You can't be OK with a criticism here but forbid it there. It's the all or none law!
yeah, I completely agree with you. I also think that nobody should be arrested because of what they say, write or believe
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