[Reader-list] Muhammad Cartoons

[punam zutshi]

Many thanks Rajesh and Mahmood.
Here's a little more on the issue in the article entitled "Musharraf
condemns Mohammad cartoon".The link is
http://in.rediff.com/news/2006/feb/03cartoon.htm
Punam



On 2/4/06, mahmood farooqui <mahmood.farooqui at gmail.com> wrote:
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: mahmood farooqui <mahmood.farooqui at gmail.com>
> Date: 04-Feb-2006 00:40
> Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Muhammad Cartoons
> To: rajesh mehar <rajeshmehar at yahoo.com>
>
>
> You know, I think that people printing cartoons of Mohammed is not
> such a big deal-or is it?
>
> Let me approach it from the other end. Pakistan has something called
> the blasphemy laws.  Under those laws anybody who says anything which
> can be shown to be undermining anything Mohammed upheld is a
> blasphemy.
>
> Consider the full implications of this. Mohammed, peace be upon him,
> said many things in llife. On occsion that he did not, the people who
> wrote his seerat and the people who wrote the Hadith, traditions and
> anecdotes of his life, are particularly garrulous and numerous.
> Altogether therefore, there is nothing, like Ali or Marx or Gandhi,
> that Mohammed has supposedly left unsaid. They include enjoining
> perfect equality, non-violence, solidarity and humility upon mankind.
> By extension, in theory and sometimes in practice, if I were to
> complain that the human race is hugely fucked up and will remain so
> forever might count as blasphemy.
>
> On the other hand, however, the western European society has been
> having a field day caricaturing Mohammed forever. Did they not
> identify him as Mahound, the name given to the anti-christ in Dante's
> Inferno-a thirteenth century text. Or was it the fourteenth century-I
> tell you, these European dates!
>
> Of course to a prosecuted and quasi-self-persecuted Muslim world it is
> a hugely cathartic occasion that they have found an issue when
> self-healing chest thumping can be accompanied by a genuine sense of
> grievance-i.e. we may, with perfect justification inflict imaginary
> violence upon the creators and purveyors of these cartoons.
>
> I share your sense of outrage. Ghalib, I think, has been there before,
>
> hum aah bhi karte hain to ho jaate hain badnaam
> voh qatl bhi karte hain to charcha nahin hota
>
> SInce it is, eventually, about power relations, I acknowledge the
> wantonness of the powers that circulated those cartoons. But they are,
> after all, cartoons. What can one say about the minds that would
> create and enjoy cartoons like these. What can we say, on the other
> hand, about jokes that continue to circulate related to the sexuality
> and other quirks of the father of our nation, viz Mahatma Gandhi. Of
> course jokes and cartoons are different media, I understand that.
>
> What I am trying to say is that our minor yet hegemonic brothers of
> Islam, that is the Arab world, have made protest enough about these
> cartoons, perhaps they have little else to contribute to the Muslim
> discourse anyway. What we should do perhaps is to hold steadfastly to
> our rising sense of importance and clout in the world. If India is
> rising, can Muslims be far behind. Then they won't bloody be able to
> say anything, will they.
>
> Of course, if our Hindu brothers want they may forsake Danish
> products-in case they know any.
>
> To approach this from another angle, yet. The annals of Mughal Empire
> are full of instances of people being brought to trial for having
> insulted the Prophet, often in the most obscure way. The MUghal qazis,
> to their great credit, usually dealt with these things in the most
> common-sensical way. One of the great casualties of modernity, and its
> attendant discourses, has been that same robust common-sensicalness of
> which we onec had aplenty.
>
> Did not Kabir once say-taapar mulla bang de, kya bahra hua khudaaye?
>
> (It wont do to blame Kabir's ignorance-for one of the meanings of
> bang daadan in farsi is to give azaan...)
>
> Mahmood
>
>
>
> On 03/02/06, rajesh mehar <rajeshmehar at yahoo.com> wrote:
> > Looks like there's been an all-out battle royale erupting all over Europe
> > and West Asia over this issue:
> >
> > "The Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy began when twelve
> > editorial cartoons depicting the Islamic prophet Muhammad were printed in
> > the Danish daily newspaper Jyllands-Posten on 30 September 2005 (and later
> > in the Norwegian Christian newspaper Magazinet on January 10 2006, the
> > German newspaper Die Welt, the French daily France Soir, and many other
> > European newspapers)..."
> >
> > Full article at -->
> > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jyllands-Posten_Muhammad_cartoons_controversy
> >
> > Related Wiki News articles -->
> > http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Saudis_boycott_Danish_dairy_produce
> > http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/%27Denmark_will_be_attacked%27_says_one_expert%2C_%27Denmark_safe%27_says_another
> >
> > What's even more remarkable is that the mainstream media in India has not
> > even whimpered about the issue. If not for Wikipedia's home page I probably
> > would not have come to know about this at all.
> >
> > --Rajesh.
> >
> >
> > Gonna make a lot o'money, gonna quit this crazy scene.
> >
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