easily offended

i guess by now you would have heard so much on the NST hoo-haa in publishing wiley miller’s ‘non sequitur’ cartoon. many bloggers had blog on it, notably of course jeff ooi, politics101 and aizuddin’s VOI. howsy of the sensintrovert also had a good round-up of the whole cartoon issue.
now, i make a comment in jeff ooi’s blog, that this cartoon was offending to the muslim. i take back my word. it was not. the reason i quickly jumped to conclusion to say it was offending was because i want action to be taken on NST… since action were taken on sarawak tribune and guangming. i don’t want to see double standard practised by the govt. i did mentioned in the comment though, that right in the beginning such harsh actions shouldn’t be taken against tribune and guangming.

to continue reading, please click on ‘more’ below.

i suppose i had been looking at only one side of the coin when i made that comment – was thinking all the time of no double standard. however, as i went blog hopping and reading news here and there, i realised i had been wrong. no, the carton was not offensive. no, there shouldn’t be any action on NST. this is because i learned that calling for action against NST would be like telling the govt. they have a right to control the press, and that we are encouraging the use of the printing presses and publication acts against any organisation.

i would like to quote a part of what aiz had blog on:
To take offense over a cartoon making fun of us? Come on — have you even been to a Friday sermon lately? Where the imam talks about the “lecherous” ways of non-Muslims and how if we follow their path we’re all going to Hell (directly implying that all our non-Muslim friends and relatives are going to Hell, no questions asked)? And that’s your typical Friday sermon in Malaysia; i’ve heard Friday sermons from religious imams from the Middle East, and even in the USA and UK — the vitrolic they spew out makes these cartoons look like a drawing of Mary Poppins.

so true regarding the friday sermon. i’m glad that someone spoke up, which encourage me to speak up. i had mentioned before that the flat i’m staying in is just next to a big surau. we can hear the azan prayers very loud and clear…. AND we can even hear the sermon being preached. quite a number of times, i did hear the iman talking about non muslims, esp. the chinese. once i heard something like “kita janganlah saperti orang cina yang pandai tipu orang dan suka duit.” well, though it may be true, but don’t you think that is not the appropriate time to say it? and shouldn’t the chinese then feel offended at what was being said?

if we want to talk about being offended, if anything, why would i be offended at caricatures of my god when i should be offended at caricatures of myself? i mean, let’s say if a cartoonist draw a silly, demeaning picture of me, i should get offended, no?… because it happens personally to me.

stevan gan, malaysiakini’s editor, had a good write-up on this matter, where he echo my sentiments.

quote:
The cartoon was not meant to mock the Prophet. It instead took a sarcastic swipe at the violent reaction to the caricatures. Put simply, Miller prodded us to ponder: ‘Why should we be afraid of one cartoonist?’

indeed… why? to think of it, all these violent reactions and silly actions all because of cartoons/caricatures. why did the protestors take it upon themselves to ‘defend’ the prophet m? what made them think prophet m would be offended at those caricatures? what made them feel it is right to fight for him? maverick rightly mentioned in one of the post here that god do not need men to protect their image. god knows how to deal with those who blaspheme.

note (OT): in the comments box, i used to have google adsense right at the bottom. i have now moved in right on top. hope it won’t bother you guys too much. oh yeah, the adsense is mine ok, not haloscan.