This is one sentence I almost always hear everywhere I go: think before you act.
What happened to Charlie Hebdo's crew is very unfortunate. Terrorism is one cruel, inhumane act. We can't deny that what they'd done is wrong.
But things happen for a reason.
Terrorists won't be attacking if only they didn't publish the controversial (and offensive) illustration. They should know better. They've worked on that field for quite a long time, surely. They must've known what would happen if they release something that outrageous to the public, especially concerning Islam. That's a sensitive topic around the globe. Faith and religion have always been. But they published it anyway.
After that, boom. Terrorist strike. Twelve people died. Then people start talking about freedom that's been taken away. Democracy. Freedom to express themselves. "To preserve the principles of independence and freedom of thought and expression", as quoted from an article in one of the newspapers.
But you see, freedom has boundaries. The reason is fairly simple. Because we don't live alone. We're communal beings, we live in a community. As free as we get, our concerns will always collide with other people's. Not everything that we think is okay, is also okay to others. So you can't just go mock other religion like what they'd done in Charlie Hebdo. Muhammad is a holy figure to the Moslems, a prophet. Respect that. There are some things that aren't meant to be played with. As a press, they should know better which topic is to publish and which one is inappropriate. I'd be angry too if my religious figure is depicted crouching and naked on a mass media. You could start a war just because of one tiny column in the corner. That's just how crucial the press is.
What they did is selfish and reckless. We all know the danger about those Islam-fanatic terrorists. Their overzealous-ness towards firearms and everything that explode is astounding. I'm sure they acknowledge that risk, too. One illustration published and they could get people's lives in danger. Well, their lives, apparently. What if it happened to other people? Did they care about that? Would they feel responsible for their action?
Because what is a freedom without respect to others? Are we still allowed to talk about individual freedom of expression when you don't even think about other people?
No one seems to care about this. All they care about are terrorists, how evil they are, and the so-called "freedom" that has been "uprooted". Well, freedom does seem like it holds no grounds nowadays. It's just kind of freely floating around, forgetting on what it should hold on to.
