The Malaysian government has imposed a month-long ban on Makkal Osai, a Tamil language newspaper, for publishing an irreverent cartoon of Jesus. I can’t find the image on-line, but it reportedly shows Him smoking a cigarette and holding a beer can. Oh, the horror! Our Lord turned that sort of thing into a joke:
John [the Baptist] came, neither eating nor drinking, and they say, “He is possessed.” The Son of Man came, eating and drinking, and they say, “Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.” [Matthew 11:18–19]
I’m happy to see that at least one Malaysian Christian blogger has protested: “Do Not Use My Faith As An Excuse For Oppression!”
There are two threads here. One is the secular authorities’ use of this alleged offense to Christianity as a cloak for silencing political opponents. As the linked entry observes,
For starters, it is common knowledge that the space for discourse on civil society and community issues within the Tamil speaking community in Malaysia is very limited and generally dominated by the government owned media (like RTM) or MIC owned mouthpieces. [“MIC” is the Malaysian Indian Congress, one of the political parties in the governing National Front coalition.] This same sorry situation is replicated in a lot of civic organisations that the community participates in.
Makkal Osai has generally been much more independent in its editorial policy and has recently been doing a series of in-depth reports on an issue that MIC very much wants people to forget .. the alleged mismanagement of Maika Holdings [link added].
The second thread is retroactive “justification” of the violent reaction of Moslem extremists to the famous Danish cartoons of Mohammed. The government found a dhimmi bishop to push that line:
“When two newspapers published a caricature of Prophet Muhammad wearing a bomb-shaped turban early last year, the government took immediate action banning the two newspapers. It was a right decision. Now we have this and they too should be served the same punishment as a lesson to others,” Bishop Julious Paul [of the Evangelical Lutheran Church] said.
He said although the newspaper carried an apology today, it was not enough as the publication of the picture “looked deliberate and unacceptable.”
Terming the publication of the picture as mischievous, he also wanted the newspaper to publish an apology not only in Makkal Osai but also in all major newspapers in the country as it had hurt the feelings of Christians in the country.
“Hurt feelings” are no excuse for censorship, and Islamofascist intolerance should be condemned, not imitated.
This has nothing to do with religion (either Muslim, Christian, nor Hindu) but rather politics. See http://powerpresent.blogspot.com/2007/08/makkal-osai-indefinite-suspension-asks.html for an analysis.
Posted by: YK | Tuesday, August 28, 2007 at 01:42 AM