10April2008
Dear and respected all;
"Mukto-Mona" regularly disposes my posting request. I am truly disappointed with this practice of dumping "opinions" those do not fit with its "blurry" vision and mission. I am requesting you all to review this and also to request the moderator, MM to have some guts for posting this commentary. Thanx and regards.
Mohammad Gani
Free Speech: "Mukto-Mona"s double standard ?
Mohammad Gani (USA)
"Mukto-Mona" finally has set some "boundary conditions" around its own "freedom of speech" horizon; imposing restrictions on its contributors with "common sense" arguments (and judgment), visibly opposing the use of terse and offensive words like `cyber bully', `omniscient', `postures', `idiot', `audacious', `fool', `ignorant', `boor', `smart alecks' etc. Freedom of speech is obviously facing restrictions here in "Mukto-Mona" only because some of its own family member's recent exchanges of "competitive and intellectual bullets" to each other for winning the game. But what is the exact "material damage" of using these words if any at all, to the humanity, human rights….. and above all, to "Mukto-mona"s own mission and vision? "Mukto-mona" surely has discovered contributor's querulous behavior self inflicting, thus kept aside its own mission and choked the free speech rights of its own distinguished members for developing reasons; visibly in quest of preserving and protecting its integrity of "decency" over the rights of free speech; an interesting exception!
Hurting the religious beliefs of billons of innocent people world wide by promoting hate messages (articles) and brutally targeting them all for the militant behaviors of some fanatics (Political and regional causes) is materially way more damaging than the damage done by these contributor's offensive words. Has "Mukto-Mona" ever given out any importance or consideration into this?
Many of us, in general believe that there should be a moral, ethical and legal limit on what we want to say, wherever we want to say and the way we want to say? The most fundamental question thus immediate arises; "Should there be any moral and/or legal limits at all on our views those we wish to express publicly? The truth is that we are never justified in silencing of an opinion even the opinion is patently false. But this statement is "never absolute" at all. Probably, we could set some control "when and how" someone expresses an opinion. If the opinion is expressed at a time, at a place or the way it is expressed that it is likely to harm another physically, fomenting or prompting aggressive attack to that person; we then "legitimately" can constrain that free speech. In all other situations, restricting speech is inappropriate, including "harmless and verbal personal attack" for logical reasons, as 'has been recently in Mukto-Mona!
Now looking through the exact meaning and the sky limit boundary of "Rights of Free Speech", should it by any means be "legitimate" to restrict speeches at all when it visibly harms others? We find only few people openly denounce free speech rights while many promote it; but why? There could be 2 possible reasons; like psychological and logical in nature. The first one is very simple; never underestimate the "power of self deception"! These people strongly believe that they are the true advocates of free speech but strangely seek every available tool and opportunity to squelch speeches they "dislike". They are blind to what they think, what they do, why they do it and the way they do it! "Mukto-Mona" is surely in that list.
The logical argument is a little comprehensive and critical; it comprises "when" free speech is appropriate and "when is not". Many agree that we need to suppress speeches only when those harms others but the same people have different opinion on "exactly when" free speech actually harms others and thus disagreement or conflict surface on "when" speech can be restricted. The criteria of defining "harms" is also the root of conflicts that brings the issue of ethics and morality, inviting ethical and moral disagreement. For example "hate messages/speeches" against any race and of religious beliefs etc., could cause expressive harms and thus should be restricted exactly the way "Mukto-mona" has restricted so-called offensive words out of fear for causing expressive harms to itself like denting its image.
However, "Mukto-Mona" has all the rights and privileges to promote "hate messages" against particular religious groups in its territory and that could even cause expressive harms too, as "Mukto-Mona" always does; but the only exception is, "Mukto-Mona" acts/acted differently when its (Mukto-Mona) own image is on the verge of vulnerability among it own family territory, an aberration of its own vision! Restrictions there could freely be applied for moral, ethical and logical justification!!
Mohammad Gani
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Sign the Petition : Release the Arrested University Teachers Immediately : An Appeal to the Caretaker Government of Bangladesh
http://www.mukto-mona.com/human_rights/university_teachers_arrest.htm
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Daily Star publishes an interview with Mukto-Mona
http://www.mukto-mona.com/news/daily_star/daily_star_MM.pdf
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MM site is blocked in Islamic countries such as UAE. Members of those theocratic states, kindly use any proxy (such as http://proxy.org/) to access mukto-mona.
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Mukto-Mona Celebrates 5th Anniversary
http://www.mukto-mona.com/Special_Event_/5_yrs_anniv/index.htm
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Mukto-Mona Celebrates Earth Day:
http://www.mukto-mona.com/Special_Event_/Earth_day2006/index.htm
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Kansat Uprising : A Special Page from Mukto-Mona
http://www.mukto-mona.com/human_rights/kansat2006/members/
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MM Project : Grand assembly of local freedom fighters at Raumari
http://www.mukto-mona.com/project/Roumari/freedom_fighters_union300306.htm
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German Bangla Radio Interviews Mukto-Mona Members:
http://www.mukto-mona.com/Special_Event_/Darwin_day/german_radio/
Mukto-Mona Celebrates Darwin Day:
http://www.mukto-mona.com/Special_Event_/Darwin_day/index.htm
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Some FAQ's about Mukto-Mona:
http://www.mukto-mona.com/new_site/mukto-mona/faq_mm.htm
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VISIT MUKTO-MONA WEB-SITE : http://www.mukto-mona.com/
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"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it".
-Beatrice Hall [pseudonym: S.G. Tallentyre], 190
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