Riots and relational responsibility

Quote

“An honest man speaks the truth, though it may give offence; a vain man, in order that it may.”  William Hazlitt (1778-1830)

News

Protests and riots have continued to erupt across the Muslim world in response to the US film denigrating Islam, and the flames have been fanned by a French satirical magazine which published a series of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed.

The right to freedom of speech and conscience is of paramount importance in the Western culture.  On the other hand, people in the Muslim world assert their right to defend their values and beliefs from attack – in this case religious offence surrounding the honour of their Prophet.

It’s incomprehensible to most people in the West, whose worldview is individualistic, that Muslims should mount angry protests against people wholly unconnected with the film.  On the other hand, it is baffling for many Muslims that the Western world (which they assume to have something of a collective identity, based on Christianity, after their own worldview) should allow some of its members to carry out with impunity acts that deeply offend the beliefs of others.

These two rights are understandably cherished, but for them to lead to more freedom and peace – not less, as we’re seeing this week – they must be tempered by relational responsibilities.  The right free speech should be matched by a responsibility to use that freedom with sensitivity, and not set out deliberately to offend and provoke others.

Conversely, the responsibility that should accompany the right to defend one’s beliefs is to be careful at which door one lays the blame, and to ensure that any protest is commensurate with the offence.

The more that rights are thought to stand alone and sufficient, dislocated from their relational responsibilities, the greater will be the mutual incomprehension, suspicion, fear and violence we have witnessed this week.  

Read on…

Colin Chapman wrote a Cambridge Paper on Christian responses to Islam, Islamism and 'Islamic terrorism', which seeks to understand the Muslim worldview better and the factors which lead to Islamic extremism.  You can read the paper here. 

Walk the talk

We often form our judgments in discussion only with those who think like us; why not approach someone you know who is a Muslim, and ask them to share their thoughts and feelings about the events of the last few days? 

The last word

From the Bible: 1 Corinthians 8, verse 9: “Be careful, however, that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak.”