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

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.