Cahaya's Rants

KUALA LUMPUR — Malaysia’s conservative Islamic party PAS Friday demanded those behind the satirical US cartoon show “South Park” apologise to Muslims worldwide over its portrayal of the Prophet Mohammed.

On Thursday, the American channel airing the show removed all references to the prophet after a radical Muslim group threatened the show’s creators.

“Even though they have added the audio bleeps, ‘South Park’s producer and broadcaster should apologise to the Muslims as this is a sensitive issue,” PAS vice president Mahfuz Omar told AFP.

“The show itself spells of bad intention and the depiction of the Prophet is provocative. It creates religious tension,” he added.

New York-based Islamic group Revolution Muslim said “South Park” creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker could end up like slain Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh, who was murdered by a Muslim extremist in Amsterdam in 2004.

Its statement followed an April 14 episode of “South Park,” where the Prophet Mohammed appeared wearing a bear mascot costume in order to avoid his image being shown.

“South Park” follows the surreal and often profane adventures of four schoolchildren in a fictitious Colorado town.

Cartoon depictions of the Prophet Mohammed in Scandinavian media outlets in recent years have led to violence and plots to murder those responsible.

Islam is the official religion of Malaysia, a Southeast Asian country where more than 60 percent of its 28 million population are Muslim Malays, who live alongside a large number of Chinese and Indian minorities.

Source: AFP

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Haha. That’s laughter from someone who is originally from Malaysia.

I don’t know if the show will ever be aired in Malaysia, but for the folks from PAS to get all angry over this show is waayyyy too much. Don’t they have anything better to do?

I just don’t get it with these people … they insist that Islam is a peaceful religion. But their actions – yeah, dare to air the show, you guys who produced that show – yeah, you remember Theo Van Gogh?

Huh? Remember what happened to him?

Related Story:

Comedy Central Allows Mockery of Christianity on South Park but Bleeps the Name ‘Prophet Muhammad’ from a Recent Episode

Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno is set to be caned by the syariah court in Malaysia for the crime of drinking beer in public, drinking beer in a hotel bar to be more specific.

The irony to this story is that Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno wants her punishment to be carried out as soon as possible and that it be carried out in public.

Even  though she wants the punishment to be carried out in public, I think the real reason for wanting that is not to deter other Muslims from consuming alcohol but to SHAME the Islamic laws and the court that meted out that punishment.

After all what is drinking beer in a hotel bar compared to the real crimes committed by fellow Malaysian Muslims?  Especially the corruption that is rampant among the ruling elites in the country?

Malaysia prides itself as being a modern and progressive Muslim country but if Kartika’s punishment is not retracted, Malaysia is nothing but another backward and barbaric Muslim country.

PETALING JAYA: The spying and reporting by the two Al-Islam journalists were offensive and contrary to the Malaysian culture of peace, harmony and tolerance, the MCA NGO Liaison Bureau said Saturday.

Its chairman Datuk Ti Lian Ker called on the Home Minister to act against individuals, institutions or publications that acted in a manner deemed “provocative or sensitive to another religion.”

He said this when supporting the statement by Executive committee chairman of Christian Federation of Malaysia Rev Ng Moon Ling that it was a breach of the spirit of the guarantee of freedom of religion in the Constitution when the journalists spied on Christians and participated in their Holy Communion.

Source: thestar.com.my

Imagine if the tables had been turned, that a couple of Malaysian Christian jounalists had spied on Muslims and participated in their Islamic rituals at their mosques.

Can you imagine the outcry, the outrage, the teeth gnashing, the protests in the streets complete with banners containing racial and religious slurs against the perpetrators?

In Malaysia, cultural and religious sensitivity is a one way street. The demand for respect and tolerance only applies to Islam, the official religion of the country.

The catholic church, the MCA, and all other religious groups in Malaysia can complain about this outrage, but there will be no action taken against the two journalists by the police for their offensive behaviour, behaviour that broke the law (Section 298A (1) of the Penal Code) protecting religious and racial harmony in Malaysia.

Further Reading:

Al Islam totally insensitive to Catholics

Two Malaysian Muslim Journalists Spark Anger With Church Article

KUALA LUMPUR, July 27 (Bernama) — The Western media’s generally biased reporting on Islam and the Muslim community and how it has affected the Muslim world will be the main topic of discussion at next week’s international conference on representation of Islam and Muslims in the media.

The two-day conference entitled, ‘Representation of Islam and Muslim in Media’ and attended by communication scholars, is held at Putra World Trade Centre (PWTC) here on Tuesday.

Organised by the Department of Communication Kuliyyah of Islamic Revealed Knowledge and Human Sciences, International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM), the conference will look into various aspects of how Islam and Muslims are represented in the media.

Head of IIUM Department of Communication, Dr Azmuddin Ibrahim said among areas to be looked into included the reporting on war and conflicts in Muslim countries and Islam in non-main stream media in Muslim and Western societies.

He said the conference would also touch on Islam in the orientalist literature (past and present), fictional representation of Muslims, Islam and the new media, Deconstructing and Reconstructing Islam, Representation of Islam as a Civilization and Media Framing of Islam.

“From this conference, we hope to see whether there is really biasness in media reporting on Islam and Muslims…from there, we hope to get ideas on how to put things in place (proper perspective).

“Probably, we could suggest more studies be done so that we can get the true picture of what is happening. Otherwise, it is not fair for Islam and the Muslims,” he told Bernama here today.

Dr Azmuddin said the generally negative reporting on Islam and Muslim by the Western media worsened, particularly after the 2001 Sept 11 incident, whereby Islam and Muslims were usually associated with backwardness, extremist and fundamentalists, threatening and other negative images, thus putting Muslims under scrutiny by others.

Is reporting the truth on what goes on with Islam and Muslims bias? Take for example the following stories.

Muslims storm Protestant school in Jakarta, injuring 265 students

Jakarta (AsiaNews) – Police evacuated the Christian Theological Arastamar Institute (STT SETIA) which is located in an eastern district of the Indonesian capital after it suffered damages during clashes between Christians and Muslims over the week-end. At least 1,500 students were moved to nearby police headquarters and a local Christian-based political party. The situation remains critical and further violence between opposite factions cannot be ruled out.

“The school foundation urged us to intervene to protect people,” said East Jakarta District Police Chief Senior Superintendent. “For this reason we moved everyone out.”

Last night hundreds of residents from the village of Kampung Pulo had taken up arms threatening to storm the school after being instigated by an imam at a local mosque who claimed that a bunch of Christian gangsters were coming to “protect” the school after it was attacked on Saturday by a Muslim mob, causing damage to the building and hurting hundreds.

Full story here.

Bali terrorist: “For Islam, dying by decapitation is a blessing”
Jakarta (AsiaNews) – According to Islamic law, it is better “to die by decapitation than by gunshot”, and no “repentance or regret” must be shown over violence committed “in the name of holy war”. This is the “spiritual testament” of Imam Samudra, one of the three people responsible for the massacre in Bali in 2002, in which more than 200 people died. The three are awaiting judgment from the Indonesian authorities.

“Until I die, I will show no repentance for my actions”, the terrorist is believed to have said to his brother Lulu Jamaluddin during a recent conversation at the maximum-security prison on the island of Nusakambangan, in central Java. He also added that a holy war, conducted through “the use of bombs” and suicide bombing attacks, is “blessed by God”, for which reason he will never make “appeals to clemency” to avoid the death penalty.

Full story here.

How do folks participating in the international conference propose the western media report these stories? Pretend that the people who storm the Protestant school were not Muslims? That their actions were not religiously motivated?

How about the Bali terrorist’s remorselessness? Should the media pretend that his heinous act had nothing to do with his faith?

The media’s reporting of Islam will only change if there are less violence perpetrated by Muslims especially on non-Muslims.

Geert Wilders is reported to be planning on making a sequel to Fitna. Despite complaints by various Muslim groups against him, and even charges filed against him in Jordan, Geert Wilders does not seem deterred by the uproar he has raised.

I say, good for him for exercising his right to free speech!

KUALA LUMPUR, June 9 (Bernama) — The key to ensure better relations between the Muslim world and western nations is by correcting the foreign media’s perception of Islam as a religion of terror synonymous with the Al-Qaeda movement, Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim said Monday.

“One of the stumbling blocks is the power of the media in the West that doesn’t seem to give a margin for us to come in into understanding Islam more objectively.

“The coverage they give is more about sensational news about terror, about captivity, about war and not on the other side of Islam which I have always been stressing — the life of Muslims.

“Therefore, the tenets of Islam urging us to be calm and be appreciative of beauty and the world have never been put forward in a manner that is coercive enough or effective enough. There lies the problem,” he said in his welcoming remarks at the “Third International Conference On the Muslim World and The West: Bridging the Gap”.

Rais stressed this point owing to rising Islamophobia among westerners.

Rais said even the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) and other Islamic organisations and associations had never taken steps to correct this wrong point of view painted by the western media which equates Muslims and Islam with the Al-Qaeda.

“Actually, this is not the reality, it is a political movement by the Al-Qaeda. Islam is not Al-Qaeda. This notion has not been dispelled by any group, be it the OIC or regional Islamic organisations in the world.

“As such, every time when the Al-Qaeda issue crops up in Britain, it is equated with Islam. This is the wrong perception which we need to address.

“How do you do this?. I think it is only with the concerted efforts of our own Islamic media to project the truth. We have to have the forum, we have to have the media treatment and we have to have the political will among OIC members to project this sort of idea and image,” he said.

“Therefore, the tenets of Islam urging us to be calm and be appreciative of beauty and the world have never been put forward in a manner that is coercive enough or effective enough. There lies the problem.”

Huh.

Maybe Rais Yatim should begin by addressing Malaysia’s response to the movie, Fitna. Public protests and boycott, anyone?

Should the west be blamed for their perception of Islam when they see the following images? Should they be blamed for thinking that Islam’s adherents are easily provoked and prone to violence?

Rais Yatim, tell these people that “the tenets of Islam urging us to be calm and be appreciative of beauty”! If they listen to you, the West might be inclined to change their perception of Islam.