Abstract:
This paper is about freedom of expression and of the press when confronted with the right of religious freedom. It deals with the conflict between the ethical-moral and religious values of the Muslim people and the precious value of Western Democracy: freedom of expression. Which of these rights predominates: the right to the freedom of the Islamic religion to not suffer influence or criticism from the West or the right to the unlimited freedom of expression of the West, where everything can be said and criticized? And besides this, it is about the perception of the Islamic extremist fundamentalists about this issue. Not of the whole Muslim people, who even protest in a moderate and pacific way against the offenses inflicted on them, but of the terrorists, who react to everything in an irrational, violent and deadly way. And one knows that extremism, in any sphere, above all those based on religious foundations (which lead to religious fanaticism), is reflected in the construction of absolute truths, in the non-acceptance of other arguments and in the incapacity to understand that people can think and express themselves in different ways. And this is an Islamic terrorist: a religious fanatic, who considers him/herself, his/her people and religion to be offended and oppressed for many centuries, being relegated to social inferiority, to exclusion from the capitalist neoliberal system, in the liquid society of Bauman. We highlight in this study, the attack on the French Journal Charlie Hebdo, which, after the publication of many offensive cartoons about Islam, about the prophet Mohammed and Allah, suffered a terrorist attack in January of 2015 which left 12 people dead (among them the main cartoonists of the weekly journal) and 11 wounded. With this presentation, we have the question of the research: faced with the religious fanaticism on the part of the Islamic people (dealt with here but also occurring in other religions) is the manifestation of freedom of offensive expression against the Muslims, legitimate, ethical and moral? Wouldn’t this manifestation of thought, offending a culture and a religion, be extrapolating the ethical limits and encouraging the violence and the terrorist attacks of the Islamic extremists against the West? The goal of this study is to demonstrate that freedom of expression has limitations, above all when confronted with another fundamental right which is religious freedom. As a result of this research we have concluded that the freedom of expression is an unquestionable right in the democratic world, however, it cannot be unlimited, used, for example, to offend a people and a religion. The damage caused can be irreparable, as history shows. The study is based on bibliographic research with qualitative analysis.
