Friday 17 February, 2006

Over silly cartoons!

Our hyderabadi muslim brethren were bit late in registering their protest against the depiction of Muhammad in the cartoons published by the Danish newspaper but nevertheless not to be left out, Today afternoon they finally protested in style by burning Kingdom of Denmark's flag, throwing stones on the passers, city's public transport buses(thereby breaking window glasses and hurting people traveling inside these buses, which include women & children), rampaging on streets and violently destroying public & private property.

In the old city(where majority of hyderabadi muslims reside) after performing their friday namaz(muslim prayer) they poured on to the streets with some green flags, perhaps their conscience was finally awakened during the namaz for not giving befitting reply to perceived abuse from Danish newspaper and started rampaging on the innocent people. In the past, law enforcement authority had proposed to install cameras at key locations in the city and also at some mosques due to then regular disturbance caused by our muslim brethren using those mosque premises, which was vehemently opposed by minority leaders and protested by asking rather a innocent question, that why they were singled out?. Later, under pressure from various political groups, this proposal was not even considered, instead government has increased number of police stations in the region but still they are not adequate to monitor the interiors of the old city. Members of rapid action force, a paramilitary unit which is deployed permanently in the area because of the past outbursts of our Muslim brethren and in the view of sensitiveness of this area, were helplessly watching the rampage of the mob since they were outnumbered. But few of the personal were quite glad in their inaction and that they were not in the harms way as their leisurely attitude suggested. Finally when reinforcements arrived, police personal were effective in controlling the situation.

Later, It was informed to me that our muslim brethren had difficulty in acquiring Denmark's flag because many of them heard this name (country/city:- whatever) for the first time!. If they would asked me, then i would suggest them to get any western nation's flag, preferably USA or Britain (their favorite great Satans) since in their eyes all those christian majority nations are same, eventually they will lump Denmark with the other western nations, so why scratch their head for this scandinavian country?. If anyone complains about the accuracy then may i point that most of these people had not even seen those said objectionable cartoons or Importantly Denmark's government is not a party in publishing those cartoons, so why bother?

All in all, I must express my gratitude to our muslim brethren for not killing anyone of us over silly cartoons, as their counterparts did in other parts of the world, even though i believe the honour should go to our security personals for quelling the mob. Whew!!!, i'm still alive!.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Prabu,

Yes, they will never get it and their upbringing wont let them. On other hand, It is really sad affairs, that these people are more associated with the matters related to the middle east. Even over small ruckus there, they create problem here and vent their anger on the shops in Gulzar House area in the old city (which belong to the non muslims) and passers on street. Incidentally such incidents mostly happen on Fridays, after their namaz. Government should take more active role than remaining passive & sympathetic. You wont believe, that yesterday a AP's congress government, being secular in nature has passed a resolution in the state assembly condemning said cartoons which belong to particular faith and requested the center to convey the same to the Danish government.

Anonymous said...

The cartoon was drawn by a single person Muhammad, for a single person why are they destroying many public property and injure the inocent. if they like to protest, they can report to police to ban that papers in India.

Anonymous said...

Jeevan,

Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten which published those 12 cartoons is not sold in India and most importantly they already apologized for their publication. Therefore these protests are to intimidate people of other faith. By the way, i think those silly cartoons are not worth killing scores of people, you can find those cartoons here and make your mind.

Anonymous said...

Spoke for me dude....

Anonymous said...

I have seen the cartoons sometime back, and I dont think people need to kill and destroy property to protest that. But for something for a newspaper did, apparently Indian Government has expressed its displeasure to the Danish Goverment . (this was written by Sonia Gandhi to Imam of Jama Masjid).

Lastly, the religious rights in Hyderabad, (either incited by muslims or hindus) should be nipped in the bud. The last government atleast put up cases against those involved in riots. I dont think the present government would dare to do that either.

Anonymous said...

I do agree that there is a herd-mentality fueling their cause, but I strongly feel that people should protest (non-violently though) over such unpardonable acts !

There can be no excuse for re-kindling the fire (the cartoons had first appeared before a few years) ! These Westerners who are now accusing the Muslims of being intolerant are the same ones who threatened Dan Brown when his 'Da Vinci Code' hit the stands. Now is that called Tolerence ?

Anonymous said...

Sri Harsha,

Nice to know that we have similar views on this subject.

global indian,

Very well said. Thing which baffles me is that shamelessly fatwas were issued by Qazis for beheading danish cartoonists and premier IAS officer, the principal secretary of Uttar Pradesh doesn't find anything wrong in instigating murder by UP minister, even in ones personal capacity and they don't find it offence under IPC to take action against the minister.

I think under present political constrains police are doing what they can in Andhra Pradesh. One of the person who is responsible for the ISI attack on Bangalore's Indian institute of science was serving his jail term for murdering a IPS officer but these same politicians, who were involved in violent protest in hyderabad, got him released on good behavior for reasons best known to them and with such politicians in our country and with vote bank politics, police can do very little.

Jayan,

I think its not herd-mentality but rather their sense of being part of Umma, therefore irrespective of their region & culture, they all are one community and one's problem is others problem too. Question here is not about their right to express their outrage but is those silly cartoons worth destruction & death of property & human lives, who have nothing to do with this issue?. Do hydrababis need to be stoned when there is a intifada in Palestine!?.

With Europe's colonial history and their missionary zeal they are bound to have such tendencies and which certainly exposes their double standards but that does not make current actions of muslims proper!. Having said that, i understand your perspective.

Anonymous said...

Shuro, to clarify ..

I agree that they should not have instigated violence.. I only second the reason behind their protests !

BTW, I wonder how people say that it was Prop. Moham. depicted !! There does not seem to be any explicit indication in the pics !!

Anonymous said...

Jayan,

Here is the excerpt from Jyllands-Posten's article, which will answer your question and also reveals the context in which these cartoons were published :

http://www.jp.dk/udland/artikel:aid=3544932:fid=11328/

"Danish author Kaare Bluitken wrote a primarily educational children's book about the prophet Mohammed, but ran into problems trying to find an illustrator. Certain interpretations of Islam find it inappropriate or directly forbid pictures of the prophet. Eventually, an illustrator did agree to work on the book, but only under the cloak of anonymity.

Jyllands-Posten published several articles addressing this state of affairs. The newspaper took a position that it is untenable for non-Muslims to be bound by Muslim scripture.

In order to find out exactly how widespread self-censorship is, the newspaper asked a number of Danish illustrators to submit their own personal interpretations of how the prophet might appear.

Twelve illustrators submitted drawings, which the newspaper published on 30 September 2005 as a contribution to the debate about self-censorship amongst journalists, authors, and artists."