How frightening can freedom of speech and criticism be even more scary if it touches a certain religious faith?
Damn and violently too much, as witnessed in the few seconds of the video shot on social media on the brutal and ferocious stoning that ended up leaving the body of Deborah Samuel lifeless, but not the hatred, contempt and barbarism that continued to rage. again and again, because it wasn’t enough.
Her body lying on the ground, red dress, face unrecognizable from the blows, the blood. They, all men, who still do not have enough, minutes of sticks and stones strike what remains without the word, the lament, the pity.
Because if Allah is gracious and merciful, as we read in every Sura of the Koran, some of his faithful have decided not to be. And then, if that’s not enough, there is still one more piece to add to this horror, to burn more of what remains of Deborah Samuel’s flesh.
This is the price paid in Nigeria, by a Christian student accused of blasphemy, because she thought she had the freedom to publish a voice comment on WhatsApp which was then considered by the Muslim students of her own university, offensive towards the prophet Mohammed.
Barbarism, it will be said in these parts and beyond, because fortunately the majority of Muslims in the world are not and cannot be identified with those monsters. But we can’t get away with turning our backs without taking a step forward which becomes more and more urgent.
Because beyond the conscience, the thought, the historical plurality of individual Muslims in the various areas of the world, it must also be said that an extremist and not at all lenient interpretation still persists on many issues, one of which is blasphemy. In Afghanistan, Iran, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Pakistan the death penalty is provided for the crime of blasphemy. And it is not a question of blasphemy, because blasphemous behavior, according to Islamic fundamentalists, is also and above all the exhibition of freedom of thought.
Finally, if in some countries there is a risk of death, which is also provided for by law, in other countries considered more moderate there is always a prison waiting for those who stain themselves with blasphemy.
Given these premises, how can the Moroccan, Tunisian, Jordanian or Western Muslim wash his hands of it, looking at what happened in Nigeria as a fact that does not concern him, just because it would never go that far in his own home?
Islamic fundamentalism feeds on the alibi of an extremist and radical interpretation that exists, is authoritative and institutionalized already in the very cradle of Islam, Saudi Arabia; and as long as it is not eradicated from the root with striking and breaking initiatives, barbarism will continue to feed undisturbed, precisely because the various interpretations, even radical ones, continue to have legitimacy with their exponents sitting in the same Islamic house.
As long as this mechanism is not broken, no good Muslim can feel safe, and no non-Muslim person can feel fully safe in the home of Islam. And do not hide behind the victimization of discrimination or generalizations, because the bitter truth is that Muslims continue to be victims of themselves, at a time when, even today, they have not managed to take that fundamental step forward to outlaw all that barbarism that continues to be defended in the name of God, starting with freedom of speech.