There IS a line, you know...

Much has been said and written about this tragedy. Here's my take.

Let's start with the obvious - It's unforgivable and unacceptable that anyone, Muslim or not, should murder another person, because of statements or writings, even if these offend you deeply. It's simply not part of any civilized society. There are other ways to register your displeasure in a proper manner.

What really needs to be asked, and is not being said enough, is whether there is a line that ought not be crossed when it comes to political satire.

I grew up in Malaysia, a Malay Muslim majority country, with significant minorities with other religious beliefs, like Christianity and Hinduism. I now live in Singapore, another pluralistic country where most major religions are observed and respected.

It's unthinkable that cartoons about the Prophet Mohamed would be published in a place like Malaysia or Singapore. It would offend one's neighbours, friends or colleagues, and you simply don't do that to people you live and mingle with.

It's not about the idea of "free speech", or the freedom to speak your mind. Whether the idea of "free speech" ought to be an absolute one or not, is not something I'm about to tackle here. You can Google it if you wish.

When you are amongst friends and colleagues who are Hindus, Muslims, Christians or atheists, you can certainly debate and question each other's beliefs and principles. But you would do it respectfully and certainly not in an offensive way. As an example, you wouldn't show these cartoons of the Prophet to your Muslim friends, or put them up on the wall in your office next to your Muslim colleague. You may not even find them funny at all.

Of course, the circumstances would be different in France or the US or Britain. Each society has it's own cultural quirks. In the US, for example, you would never call an African American the N word, even if he calls his friends that all the time. Even the US government has previously questioned the publication of these cartoons.

The point is - there IS a line that you don't cross when it comes to satire, and almost everyone I know, know where that line is.

This should be even more so, for journalists and writers and commentators, who speak and write and comment in the public space.

It would be inconceivable that the cartoonists at Charlie Hebdo did not know that what they were doing offended their fellow Muslim citizens deeply. What they didn't realize was that a small number of those fellow citizens were willing to resort to violence or to kill them for the offence caused.

It's even more inconceivable that, in a society like France, there didn't exist enough common ground or common space, where such differences or hatred could be resolved, or debated, or ventilated, such that individuals with extreme thoughts don't feel compelled to pick up an AK-47 and shoot those who offended them.

That's the real tragedy here.