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Uncomfortable Free Speech Part
of Religious Freedom
Tarunjit Singh
Butalia
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Is it
possible to protect religious freedom without limiting free speech?
The author who was asked by America.gov the question responds that
religious communities can address religious persecution by standing
up for one another. |
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Religious
freedom is enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
Article 18, which states: “Everyone has the right to freedom of
thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to
change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in
community with others and in public or private, to manifest his
religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.”
This declaration assumes freedom of thought, conscience and religion
to be equally important. Free speech, however uncomfortable, is
necessary for these freedoms to be exercised.
The coin of
religious freedom includes the right to practice one’s faith freely
on one side of the coin and on the other side allows for one to
change religious affiliation to some other faith or no faith at all.
These two sides of the coin are equally important.
Interestingly,
free speech is viewed sometimes as being critical of faith beliefs
and practices while being slanted toward encouraging a change in
religious affiliation. This misconception exists to a large extent
because the two sides of the coin are viewed as “freedom of
religion” pitted against “freedom from religion.” The two need not
be exclusive. Protected free speech encourages both of them.
Nearly every
major world religion began with the founder(s) of the faith
proclaiming a power higher than human spirit. This proclamation of
free speech was considered in many cases by the contemporary rulers
and religious leaders of that time as undesirable, and they made
efforts to curtail such speech, resulting in religious persecution.
Most world religions have undergone such persecution during their
infancy.
Religious
communities need to stand up for one another to neutralize such
religious persecution. As an example, the Ninth Sikh Guru, Siri Guru
Tegh Bahadur Sahib, was martyred in 1675 by the South Asian Mughal
rulers of his time because he stood up for the right of Hindus to
practice their faith even though he disagreed with the rituals of
the Hindu faith. This was a shining example in the history of world
religions when the founder of a faith laid down his life for the
free practice of another faith.
A genuine
exchange of ideas, thoughts and rationale dialogue clearly promotes
religious freedom. Then comes a little more complex form of free
speech: proselytizing, or the sharing of one’s faith with the
objective of converting another person to one’s faith. All faiths
self-promote and some choose to proselytize. One should be free to
share one’s faith — that’s how most world religions have prospered
and become spread across the globe. More complex is hate speech. If
someone wants to proclaim their religious bigotry in public, they
should be able to do so. It then becomes incumbent on multireligious
representatives and civic leaders to come together to counter such
invective. Most difficult of all is free speech that encourages
violence. As soon as free speech turns into violent action, it is
not protected free speech any more. At that point, it may be
appropriate to curtail such violent action, but not protected free
speech.
 (Tarunjit Singh
Butalia is the chairman of the Interfaith Committee of the World
Sikh Council – America Region; moderator of Religions for Peace –
USA; the vice-chairman of North American Interfaith Network; a
member of the board of trustees and executive committee of the
Council for a Parliament of the World’s Religions; and a member of
the Board of Scholars and Practitioners of The Journal of
Inter-Religious Dialogue.)
20
January 2010
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