blog assignment on racial harmony

In the context of Singapore, the decision to adopt Szilagyi's view should be rather obvious.

Singapore, as we all know, is a multi-racial, multi-culture and multi-religion society. All these in mind, it is vital to Singapore's social and economic aspect that our country uphold social responsibility. With the recent terrorist threat that involves the Muslim community, the Singapore government has taken a firm stand against terrorism and also further emphasised the need for Singaporean Muslims and the rest of the other races to live in peace. Encouraging the religious leaders to spread the message to the various communities was also part of the anti-terrorist plan. Witnessing the government's actions today proves that if we are not mindful of what we say, we can easily cause a large-scale conflict within our own country. It would therefore be everyone's social responsibility to think twice before making a comment that could be the key to a country's internal social status, and perhapes, even the global world.

Some may argue about the point of 'freedom of speech' in the country. Does that mean, in the name of 'freedom of speech', we can simply forget our limits and cross the boundaries between religions and races? Unless we want to travel back to the time of uncertainty and destruction, in other words, the racial riots that Singapore went through during the 1960s, we ought to have mutual respect for each others religion, race and culture.

Undoubtly, we should maintain freedom of expression but not to the extent of risking people insulting another religion. A certain code of respect needs to be followed, despite having the 'freedom of speech', otherwise dire consequences would occur as seen from the conflict that was sparked off by the cartoon on Prophet Muhammad. Singapore cannot afford to suffer another economic downfall and social unrest. It would be detrimental to her and innocent Singaporeans.