The right to freedom of speech, has made it possible to criticise and make fun of religion and not the least the politicians and the people in power with out risking being prosecuted or loosing your life. It is one of the fundamental rights in a democracy, and should therefore be defended and preserved, and one should never compromise with the religious forces despite their use of aggression, threats and brutality against freedom of speech. But one can ask one self, after the so-called Mohammed crisis, whether there still exists writers, who dares to write a critical book on Islam, without filling threatened. Can a film-instructor make a film about the prophet Mohammed in the same way as film was made about Jesus, making fun of him (Jesus), with out being afraid of being killed? Can a comedian make fun of Mohammed and Islam and the Koran, without receiving numerous threats? Can anybody be allowed to criticise Mohamed or even Jesus and the other holy, in the same manner as has been done since the time of the enlightenment. The answer is unfortunately: no. Thus the civil society has been set back, freedom of speech as been impeded and suffered a defeat.
By creating fear and self-censorship, by the use of threats and by the use of aggression, the Islamic forces have succeeded in hitting hard down on authors, journalists, opposition, women- and civil- and human rights- organisations in the middle east and Arabic countries, and else where, where they have power. Anybody who dares to criticise religion and the religious people in power, or make fun of religion, are being prosecuted, tortured and killed. Thousands of people in these countries have until now lost their life, exactly because of their criticism of Islam and the Islamic authorities.
The political Islamic forces in Europe tries in the same manner to force society to submit to their demands to limitations on freedom of speech and the right to criticise religion, especially Islam or criticise the Islamic forces involvement in society.
If one submits to their demands, if one accepts that it is not allowed to offend a religion or religious feelings and if one out of respect, limits the right to freely criticize and make fun, not only of religion and the holy, but also the people in power, then the liberty of speech and all the basic rights, such as liberty, human-rights, women-rights amongst others, starts to disappear and die. Limiting the right to criticise religion is the beginning leading to limitations in the right to criticise and confront the politicians and power-holders. This is something we are witnessing in countries, where freedom of speech does not exist.
During the Mohammed crisis a large part of authors, intellectuals and politicians in Denmark, demanded, that a Danish newspaper was condemned, because it has shown 12 cartoons of Mohammed, and by doing so offended Islam an the religious feelings of some Muslims. Instead of sticking to the unconditional right to freedom of speech, instead of criticizing the religious powers and imams, who travelled around and arose violence and treats against a newspaper and a group of cartoonist, who had drawn some cartoons, instead of asking why they created a crisis because of the 12 drawings, instead these people focused on the insult of the religious feelings and the Danish newspapers intention, and the fact that the Danish government was not so fast in giving an excuse. This is one of the reasons why the Islamic forces succeeded in defeating the freedom of speech in the Mohammed case. There what not many people who asked, why people should not have the right to make these drawings ? Why is it not the imam, who travelled around and arose violence and treats, who are being prosecuted, instead of Jyllands Posten ? Why should anybody excuse for criticizing a religion and even apologize to those, who kills people for criticizing their religion and the powers in middle East and Arabic countries ? Not many people realized that this was a fight between dark religious forces and freedom of speech and liberty, not a battle between Muslim and Christian, or the west and the east.
If society is not to be set back, if freedom of speech and the fundamental human values shall prevail, and not be replaced by middle age religious values and norms, then society, critics, writers, journalists, women-right fighters etc shall fight this setback by sticking to the unconditional right to freedom of speech and the right to criticise religion.
A defeat for the freedom of speech is not alone a defeat for religion-critics, authors, journalists and the open-minded people of the west. It is also a defeat for people in those countries where religious dictators rule, and have deprived people of their liberty and right to freedom of speech.
In order to avoid this set back, it is now more important than ever to create a secular society.
It is necessary to day to obtain a totally secular society, where religion is separated from the state, (such as with education and upbringing of children), in order to retain the basic human and civil rights, preserve liberty and freedom of speech, and not the least equality between sex, children rights etc.- in short meaning something that people once fought for in order to achieve, something that many people in the middle east and Arabic countries still fight for, in order to achieve.
