Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has joined Muslim leaders around the world in saying free speech shouldn’t put Islam in a bad light..“Freedom of expression is not without limits. We do not have the right, for example, to shout ‘fire!’ in a movie theatre crowded with people. There are always limits,” Trudeau told reporters..“We owe it to ourselves to act with respect for others and to seek not to arbitrarily or unnecessarily injure those with whom we are sharing a society and a planet..“In a pluralist, diverse and respectful society like ours, we owe it to ourselves to be aware of the impact of our words, of our actions on others, particularly these communities and populations who still experience a great deal of discrimination”.He was responded to a question about the beheading of a teacher in a Paris suburb who had shown his class several controversial cartoons from Denmark showing the Prophet Mohammed that Muslim people say is blasphemous..French President Emmanuel Macron condemned the killing and said France will always protect free speech rights..The case has drawn angry marches around the world, at least one more terror attack in France and led to Muslim leaders decrying anyone who publishes the cartoon..Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi said freedom of expression should stop if it offends more than 1.5 billion people..“We also have rights. We have the right for our feelings not to be hurt and for our values not to be hurt,” he said during an address to commemorate the Prophet Mohammad’s birthday, Reuters reported.. POLL: Many Albertans say they will ignore Christmas COVID lockdown .“And if some have the freedom to express what is in their thoughts I imagine that this stops when it comes to offending the feelings of more than 1.5 billion people.”.Reuters also reported Turkey’s leader Tayyip Erdogan has called for a boycott of French goods and Pakistan’s parliament passed a resolution urging the government to recall its envoy from Paris..Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has written to the leaders of Muslim-majority countries, asking them “to act collectively to counter growing Islamophobia in non-Muslim states,” Aljazeera reported..Khan said leaders of these countries did not understand the “love and devotion Muslims all over the world have for their Prophet [Muhammad] and their divine book the Holy Quran..“Hurtful actions result in reactions from Muslims as they see their faith and their beloved Prophet targeted which results in further discriminatory actions by governments against Muslim populations in their states, resulting in marginalisation of Muslims and the creating of space for radical, far-right groups to exploit the situation,” Khan wrote..In February 2006, the Western Standard and the Jewish Free Press reprinted the cartoons, causing world-wide controversy..Numerous complaints where filed against the Western Standard but none of them went anywhere..Dave Naylor is the News Editor of the Western Standard.dnaylor@westernstandardonline.com.TWITTER: Twitter.com/nobby7694
