NO country can allow religious sentiments to be hurt or top state functionaries to be subjected to ridicule under what Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar described as `the pretext of freedom of expression.
What Chaudhry Nisar stated is the essence of what free speech, freedom of the press and the religious freedom is truly all about.
Free speech does not mean the right only to agree with the views of the majority; it means the right to vociferously disagree with the views of the majority, even if it means being in a minority of one.
Martin Luther abused the popes, used foul language and vilified the Roman Catholic faith without mercy. He started the Protestant Reformation and there exists a Lutheran Church today. None of this would have been possible without his f reedom of expression and the newlyinvented printing press. In matters of faith individual conscience and not blasphemy laws seeking the death penalty, ought to prevail.
Pakistan should strive to become a liberal democracy with fundamental freedoms and human rights for all. What Islam needs today is an age of reason, enlightenment, reformation and renaissance.
