Even as local Islamic scholar Imtiaz Mohammed condemned Wednesday’s attack at French magazine Charlie Hebdo he says freedom of expression cannot be exercised without religious sensitivity. Mohammed, president of the Islamic Missionaries Guild, said the rampage by brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi at the French satirical magazine, which left 12 people dead, was not “Islamic behaviour.”
The attack sparked a global campaign with the use of the simple phase “Je Suis Charlie”—I am Charlie, to show solidarity and strength in the freedom of the press. However, in the same vein Mohammed, in a telephone interview, said the media must exercise its use of freedom of expression with cultural sensitivity.
“It is fine to criticise Islam. We do not have a problem with that, everybody is free to criticise everyone’s religion. But not with the words and images and so on to degrade and disrespect the individual or the religion. We must not do those things and Islam teaches us not to do those things either,” Mohammed said.
He said to its credit the T&T media have not engaged in acts using images of religious groupings, their Gods and prophets and poke fun at them. Charlie Hebdo, he said, not only used images of Prophet Muhammed, but Pope Francis and other individuals to poke fun at them in the magazine and “that is not something that should be encouraged, as a matter of fact that should be discouraged.”
Mohammed described the murders of the 12 people, among whom four cartoonists and two police officers, as unfortunate since innocent people were killed “for what they think they had the right to do.” He said the actions of the Kouachi brothers and terror groups globally only served to spread a bad image of Islam and make it “harder for muslims.”
When contacted French Ambassador Hedi Picquart declined to comment on the slayings in his country.
Muslim league: This is not Islam
Dr Nasser Mustapha, head of the Trinidad Muslim League, agreed with Mohammed that the act by the Kouachi brothers on Wednesday went against the very teachings of Islam.
“We do not believe in taking lives except for just cause and this cause is not justified. We believe also in freedom of expression and we believe, especially people in the media, journalists and so on, should be free to articulate their views. This is not the way. We could challenge, we could question, disagree, but to take a life it is definitely not in keeping with the principles of Islam,” Mustapha said.