With freedom comes responsibility ...

One Saturday night around 6 years ago, I was out partying with some Young Liberal mates in Sydney CBD. My mates and I had a deal – they’d buy their own drinks. They’d also buy me lots of soft drink out of respect for my religious sensitivities. They’d get drunk. I’d then drive them home.

I’d also supply the humour, much of it plagiarised from others. On one such occasion, we were walking past what appeared to be some inebriated English backpackers. One of the Poms bumped into me and shouted: “Move out of the way, Paki!”

I turned around after he’d walked past. I thought I’d pay him back with some hilariously insensitive humour. It went something like this.

“Hey Pommy? You got any pictures of your mum in the nude? No? You wanna buy some then?”

It wasn’t my joke. It came from the British comedians Mel Smith and Grif Rhys Jones. My friends were having a good laugh for a short while. Until, that is, when we saw the entire mob of backpackers running our way.

When we finally left them behind, my friends counselled me as best as they could after a few too many.

“Mate, you shouldn’t have said that. Yeah, it was a joke. But you said it about his mother. Even a drunken backpacker gets offended when you insult his mum. You should know that. You could have had us in hospital.”

In Aussie culture, we know there are certain things you never bring up at the dinner table. One is politics. The other is religion.

We are living in a society which doesn’t take religion all that seriously. Freedom of religion basically means freedom from being religious. People take the piss out of religious symbols all the time.

But there are some things you don’t poke fun at. For instance, you don’t poke fun at the Holocaust in front of a Jewish person. You don’t poke fun at the massacres that took place during the Spanish Inquisition or else you’ll offend Jews and Muslims.

And as the world found out after Salman Rushdie’s novel “The Satanic Verses” was published, you don’t poke fun at the Prophet Muhammad.

Seriously, I think a lot of Muslims are overreacting (to say the least!) over the 12 cartoons. They are also being manipulated by their kings, generals, emirs and presidents-for-life who are egging them on.

Syria is a police state ruled by a ruthless Ba’ath Socialist regime, the same party that Saddam Hussein belonged to. It’s believed over 50% of the Syrian population belong to one or more secret police forces. If the Syrian government wanted to stop the torching of Danish and other embassies, it could have.

Muslim governments are manipulating the situation to gain popularity from their people. Instead of focussing on the many problems face, Muslim rulers are seeking a diversion to keep their people busy.

And yes, in Western countries newspapers are allowed to ridicule and lampoon anything and anyone within the bounds of the law. But just because something is lawful doesn’t make it right.

As a nation, we were grossly offended when some thugs decided to pull down and defile the Australian flag in retaliation for the Cronulla riots. We value our flag and are offended when it is insulted. It isn’t just a piece of cloth.

Similarly, Muslims get offended when one of their Prophets is lampooned. Some of them are reacting in a stupid and counterproductive fashion. But that doesn’t make publication of the cartoons right.

Across the Tasman, 2 Fairfax-owned papers based in Wellington and Christchurch have published the cartoons. To their credit, Kiwi Muslims have thus far reacted peacefully. They have even offered to write letters to Muslim countries threatening to boycott Kiwi exports.

The newspapers claim they are standing up for free speech. Yet publishing a cartoon depicting a Prophet of Islam wearing a turban looking like a bomb is hardly free speech. It is more like freedom to insult and offend without taking responsibility for the consequences.

New Zealand may lose upto $100 million dollars in exports thanks to the decision of Fairfax papers to publish the cartoons. Australia has more to lose if our media proprietors throw good sense and sensitivity out the window and publish the cartoons.

Our farmers have been through years of drought. Which newspaper standing up for free speech will be ready to compensate or farmers is millions of dollars in export revenue from Muslim countries is lost?

My message to newspaper proprietors is simple. Before you decide to publish, show us the cash you’ll provide to compensate all those innocent Australians whose livelihoods will be affected by your allegedly principled stance.

Just as with power, similarly with freedom comes great responsibility. I hope Muslims learn to calm down and start solving problems more important than 12 offensive cartoons. I also hope newspapers will be sensitive enough to understand that insulting 1.2 billion people isn’t the most rational way to make a point about freedom of speech.

iyusuf@sydneylawyers.com.au