Imam condemns murder of French teacher, calls for religious blasphemy to be criminalised
Imam Mohammad Elsadi has condemned the killing of French teacher Samuel Paty, and has also called for the mocking of prophets and faiths to be criminalised and prohibited in order to “comply with the human rights and safeguard the social peace.”
Paty, a 47-year-old teacher, was beheaded by one of his 18-yearold students – a Chechen man – who took offence at cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad shown in a class on free speech. Depictions of Muhammad are prohibited in Muslim faith.
Elsadi condemned the killing, saying that there is no “legal justification for such a criminal act.”
“Muslims as all other people in Europe need to be, as always the vast majority of them are, prudent and mindful of the law. All need to be fully law-abiding citizens or residents. If they do not agree with certain laws, they have to use the available legal channels to request the possible changes or modifications,” Elsadi said in a statement.
“Laws should be legislated complying with the universal inalienable human rights. They should serve the welfare and the stability of societies. The fair law must always be enforced, without waiting for such brutal criminal individual attacks to happen. However, we must not let an emotional response override the rule of law. Any form of opportunism from the emotion caused by such a tragedy should be avoided.”
He said that freedom of expression “is a great human right and great grace, but it is not a goal in itself. It is a means for the welfare of man and the common good.”
“Absolute freedom of expression can be destructive. It might cause easily avoidable hatred, fear, division and dangerous social instability. It can trigger violence, endanger the lives of people and threatens the harmonious peaceful coexistence of any modern multicultural society. Eventually, it serves no good cause,” Elsadi said.
He quoted Pope Francis in saying that freedom of expression is a fundamental right, but that there should be limits to offending and ridiculing the faiths and beliefs of others. “It is normal. You cannot provoke. You cannot insult the faith of others. You cannot make fun of the faith of others’.’
“Unfortunately, the secularism in certain countries became extreme anti-religion and the freedom of expression became a weapon for defamation of the sacred symbols of faiths,” Elsadi said.
“Mocking the prophets and faiths should be criminalized and prohibited to comply with the human rights and safeguard the social peace,” he continued.
He said that for Muslims, it is difficult to comprehend how anybody could dare to mock any prophet because they consider them all the most righteous, the infallible and models, especially Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad.
“Muslims do believe that any mocking of any Prophet is blasphemous. Mocking Prophet Muhammad is definitely a direct insult to 1.5 billion Muslims all over the world who consider him dearer than their parents and children. It deeply provokes and hurts their spiritual sentiments and leaves severe bitterness in their hearts,” Elsadi said.
“Mocking Prophet Muhammad is an offence against all prophets and all religions. It conveys the worst destructive message to the youths and children of the world.”
“Those who mock the prophet and those who support them will not harm his great reputation, rather they will harm and disgrace themselves and cause harm to the interests of their respective societies.”
“Those who promote the mocking of the Prophet and reward it make Muslims feel that they are detrimentally targeted.”
He said that those who keep insisting on publishing, distributing and displaying the infamous cartoons of Prophet Muhammad on the public buildings in a provocative open way against the Muslim sentiments are playing into the hands of the Muslim extremists and the extreme right groups. “They are directly responsible for any unfortunate consequences,” he said.
He noted that certain political leaders should stop focusing on stigmatising and criminalising the Muslim communities.
“Such political leaders are urged to stop erroneously associating such criminal terroristic acts like the deplorable killing of the French teacher with Islam which is against every type of extremism and terrorism.”
“Muslims are the main victims of terrorism more than any other nation,” he said.
He said that Muslims do not associate Christianity with the terroristic attacks against Muslims in New Zealand “because we know how we should distinguish between the religion and the religious.”
“Such individual isolated acts should not be used as a justification for collective punishment of Muslims, violating their basic human rights and enforcing them to lose their own Islamic cultural identity.”