The freedom of one individual ends where the freedom of another begins: this is the bottom line of the press conference “Freedom and Responsibility: Seeking Mutual Understanding” held last Friday in Kyiv. According to the conference participants from Ukraine’s Muslim organizations and Islamic scholars, the idea of freedom envisages responsibility on the part of one who pronounces and writes this word or...draws cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed. “The freedom of a believer is restricted by their relationship with the Almighty. For a non-believer, freedom ends where the freedom of another individual begins. There is no absolute freedom, for absolute freedom means licentiousness,” says Mykola Kyriushko, president of the all-Ukrainian civic organization “Ukrainian Center of Islamic Studies.” He thinks that the primary cause of the cartoon scandal, which may well turn into a dangerous confrontation between the Christian and Muslim worlds, is Europeans’ ignorance of the specific features of Islam and widespread incorrect stereotypes about Muslims. In contrast with Christians, for whom everyday life and region almost never cross paths, Muslims see them as being inseparably linked. “For a Muslim, Islam is a way of life. Nothing is more important for him than the fact that he is a Muslim. We must get used to this if we are to live together,” Kyriushko noted. We cannot avoid this coexistence because the Muslim community in Europe is about 30 million strong, he added.
Oleksandr Kubelius, an archpriest of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate), sees a political background behind the cartoon scandal, which is aimed at stirring up inter-confessional enmity. “Government and money are the motive forces behind this conflict,” says the priest. In order to achieve their goals, he says, certain forces are trying to attach “the image of an enemy” to Muslims. “This is convenient above all for those who seek to stimulate the work of the military-industrial complex, develop new weapon systems and control financial flows and energy resources,” Kubelius believes.
The conference participants emphasized that in today’s globalized world, where state, cultural and linguistic borders are being effaced, we must remember that we are all different and accordingly should conduct dialogues and avoid conflict situations.
