On Thursday evening, I joined the group at the Oulu Opisto in the Pohjankartano to discuss the subject of Freedom of Speech. I asked the Convenor, Yrjö Mikkonen, to send me a short summary of the meeting of yesterday, which was well attended.
"Religions, values & our time"
Discussion group convened on
16 March evening at Oulu Opisto.
Fourteen persons representing Bangladeshi, Finnish, Indian. Iranian, and German backgrounds and Bahaí, various denominational Christians (Lutheran, Orthodox), Humanist, Muslim and Mormon viewpoints participated a lively discussion on the topic of freedom of speech and its relationship with sacred and important values.
Some highlights.
It became evident that presently the real freedom of speech is largely exercise by the agency that has the playground, tool and rules for it, i.e. media. Small groups in Finland, like Muslims, Mormons or Indians have great difficulties to defend their culture and values when ridiculed on biased grounds.
It was stressed that even if religion is not given its due value the binding laws of UN Human Rights as well as EU and American conventions should be respected.
It was pointed out we should not give in in front of the cynical world. Sacred values are the only moral skeleton that can keep "the scattering body of mankind" in its sounder shape. Despite different religious backgrounds and history the shared spiritual values and shared understanding of the our same spiritual source, the All-Mighty God helps us in the painful journey towards the unification of the mankind.
The participants were extremely well-meaning and the level of discussion was healthy and excellent.
However, my own observation is that, in Finland, this sort of disregard of the respect for other ethnic minorities by the media, bureaucracy, law enforcement officials, judiciary and politicians, is not something that started yesterday, but has been prevelant, based on my personal experiences for over 20 years, and possibly much much longer, from a Finnish historical perspective.
Helsingin Sanomat 01.10.1988This distasteful and religously abusive drawing, and an equally abusive text, was published in Helsinki's and Finland's leading newspaper, Helsingin Sanomat, way back in 1988.
This national paper did not even permit a right of reply.
The ignorant, self-serving author and cartoonist, both of whom were supported by an editorial policy of a newspaper which thrived on hate mongering, totally maligned the culture, the civilisation and a religion and faced no reprimand whatsoever from any branch of Finnish society..
To be able to solve this aspect of "Freedom of Speech", it is necessary to talk in terms of starting "real education" in Finland.
From the Finnish perspective, with the even more stringent educational norms to be imposed on the public, as the rights for individual ethnic minority groups to start their own education agenda now being firmly taken off the table by the Finnish Government, it means that the level of "education" amongst Finns will sharply decline even further than presently in the coming years.
But on the other side I must comment on the level of discussion that is taking place in Finland about the cartoons published in Denmark and then by other western countries. The cartoons were certainly distasteful. But there is no law which condemns such cartooning - it is only the conscience.
Some people have been saying that it is forbidden to depict the Prophet in drawings. This may be a rule which can be applied to His followers by those that administer the religion, but it is not an universal rule applicable to all people. There have been thousands of pictorial depictions of the Prophet and his family.
I give below the cover page of a "comic strip" (
A sequence of drawings in a newspaper, magazine, etc., relating to a comic OR ADVENTUROUS situation) magazine, which was published way back in 1988 in the US. In it there are several pictoriasl depictions of the Prophet and many members of His family.
Out of respect for my fellow travellers in the world I have blacked out the picture of the Prophet on the cover, but let me assure you that this cover page can be found on the internet.
A letter, yesterday, from an Oulu artist, to a fellow Muslim in Oulu who had claimed that it was not permitted to depict the Prophet pictorially, was one which can be greatly commended. The artist captured the fact that no laws have ever existed in the northern countries which restricts any such depiction of any personality. Although he is strictly true, there have been instances where the Finnish Press followed self-censorship about comical cartoons about some of their "respected" politicians!
