Mrs Clooney, Jozef.

Je suis Taiwan.

Je suis Tienanmen.

You will define liberal Muslims.

[Daphne – They’re liberal Muslims in the same way that Maltese people are liberal Roman Catholics, Jozef. Wherever and whenever you have a whole society brought up in a religion as a matter of fact and state of being, it just becomes a way of identifying yourself rather than something you actually believe in. How many Roman Catholics do you know in Malta – of a younger generation at least – who stayed virgins until marriage, don’t use contraception, and go to mass every Sunday, to mention just three of the most obvious things. Young Maltese people are among the most promiscuous in Europe, and still define themselves as Roman Catholic.]

They don’t seem to be able to grasp that if you put a group off limits to satire you are excluding it in the harshest possible terms.

What will it say to liberal Muslims around the world? ‘Look, we have this thing where we joke about our grievances, we decided you aren’t mature enough to be part of it’.

No we should never abuse our freedom by insulting and offending the sentiments of others. This is not freedom. This is spreading hatred and inviting an other Hebdo tragedy. Thank heaven that other religions do not react the Muslims’ way.
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I agree that the attack was on the freedom of the press. But I’d like also to raise the point of the freedom of information.

Many heads of state (including our Prime Minister Joseph Muscat) joined in the Paris rally, ignoring the fact that they too are guilty of hiding information from their people.

It’s not as extreme as shooting down journalists and/or innocent citizens. But denying people due information is as much anti-democratic.

I suppose Xinhua got ‘the point’ all right; it strengthens the official Chinese position to restrict freedom of expression.

What is worrying is that many ‘Europeans’, not least in Malta, argue on the same lines: “I’m against terrorism BUT…. I’m for restricted freedom of expression.”

“It is a necessary consequence of freedom of expression that people might be offended by what you express: so what? Nobody dies of an offence.”

“…religion is fair game. Atheists can point out its ridicules, and believers have to learn to take a joke and a pun. They are welcome to drown us in return with sermons about the superficiality of our materialistic, hedonistic lifestyles.”