An image deemed insulting to a prophet is printed in a\nnewspaper. Religious leaders express their dismay. The common faithful see the\npicture as an attack on their religious beliefs. Welcome to the delicate world\nof religious sensitivities. But where are the violent protests? Fiery\ndenunciations are not issued from pulpits up and down the land. No buildings\nare burnt down, and no death threats are issued to those responsible for the\noutrage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This must be an alternative universe to ours, not\nunlike that in Douglas Adams’ “The Restaurant at the End of the\nUniverse”, where a group of devout members of the Church of the Second\nComing of the Prophet Zarquon are dining in Milliways, the restaurant at the\nend of the universe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This remarkable catering venture is built, of course,\non the fragmented remains of an eventually ruined earth which are enclosed in a\nvast time bubble and projected forward in time to the precise moment of the End\nof the Universe. Of course, Zarquon’s followers have to sit through a routine\nby the restaurant’s entertainment host, Max, during which their prophet, whose\nSecond Coming has been awaited for centuries by his followers, is lampooned for\nstill not having turned up, with only minutes to go before the apocalypse.\nInstead of rioting and destroying the restaurant, as any self-respecting\nreligious believer in our universe would, they merely shift in their seats,\nthen sit rigid and stony-faced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Max, seeing their disapproval, says to the audience, “No,\nbut seriously though folks, seriously though, no offence meant. No, I know we\nshouldn’t make fun of deeply held beliefs, so I think a big hand please for the\nGreat Prophet Zarquon …” (here, the audience claps respectfully) …\nwherever he’s got to!”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A Tamil daily, Makkal Osai, recently printed a\nreproduction of a popular Roman Catholic icon of Jesus Christ, the Sacred\nHeart, to illustrate its “Thought for the day” section. The\ninspirational verse was “If someone repents of his mistakes, then heaven\nawaits them”, a thought that the editors of the paper must have taken to\nheart in the days that followed; the picture — untraditionally, and to the\ndismay of some Christians — showed Jesus holding a can of beer in one hand\nand a cigarette in the other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bishop Julius Paul of the Evangelical Lutheran Church\nrejected the apology printed in the following day’s edition of the newspaper.\nHe called for the paper to be banned, citing the banning of two newspapers that\nhad reproduced the Jyllands-Posten caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad the year\nbefore. Not having access to a device as useful as a fatwa, the bishop took\nrefuge instead in claiming an ability to read minds, declaring that the apology\nwas unacceptable because the publication of the picture “looked\ndeliberate”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bishop Paul’s response should surprise no one; the\nbanning of books, as well as their public burning (often with the author\nincluded in the conflagration), has long been part of Christian tradition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Kuala Lumpur, Datuk\nMurphy Pakiam, also expressed his dismay, calling the picture “a\ndesecration and therefore hurtful to the religious sentiments of\nCatholics”, but then went on to accept the paper’s apology and said that\nhe considered the matter closed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Unfortunately for Makkal Osai, the Christian tradition\nof raining destruction upon the sinner trumped the Christ-like tradition of\nshowing the sinner mercy. The Internal Security Ministry suspended the paper’s\nprinting permit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Catholic bishops’ weekly paper, The Herald,\ncriticized the suspension: “Why was there haste and eagerness to punish\nthe paper for a mistake that was already forgiven by the aggrieved party? The\nfact that the paper is owned by a MIC (Malaysian Indian Congress) strongman and\nis at loggerheads with the current MIC leader smacks of political\ninterference.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Archbishop of Kuala Lumpur said he was “perplexed\nand bemused” by the newspaper’s closing, and pointed out that\n“Christians believe in reconciliation”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The burning of the Malaysian flag in Kuala Terengganu,\nTerengganu, this week has also been described as a “desecration”; MPs\nfrom the ruling coalition did not disappoint us in the enthusiasm of their\nrhetoric concerning the incident (they were somewhat more muted concerning the\nshooting of unarmed civilians). One MP said that those responsible for the\nflag-burning “should not be forgiven”. Another MP — developing on\nthe theological theme — described the burning as “a big sin”.\nFollowing upon this, it was only to be expected that a third MP would declare\nthat the flag-burners “should be sent to hell”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This theology of the flag (semionology?) sheds some\nlight on the attitudes of certain religious believers towards perceived\ndesecrations of their sacred icons. Flags partake of the nature of tribal\ntotems and, as such, are guarded jealously by the tribes concerned,\nparticularly against the depredations wrought by rival tribes. Whether it be an\nancient carved piece of wood handed down through generations of tribal shamans,\na royal banner lost to an opposing army in mediaeval warfare, or the Stars and\nStripes raised over Iwo Jima, a totem represents its tribe’s supremacy and very\nself. A lost flag is a lost battle, just as the destruction of tribal totems\nwas seen as a premonition of the tribe’s own eventual demise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tribal totems and tribal gods share the same nature; the only reality they represent is the tribe itself. Is a prophet insulted if a picture of him is defaced, or if he is satirized? Can a supreme God be hurt if His (or Her) imagined form is destroyed or lampooned? Does Jesus Christ really care very much if he is shown having a beer, or is portrayed, as he was recently in Australia, as Osama Bin Laden? It is the worshipper’s amour-propre, his self\u00ad-regard, that is violated by such acts, not his God or his revered prophet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our images of God condition how we behave. If we\nbelieve in a God who readily condemns many to the violence of an eternal hell,\nwe then become ready to accept and inflict violence as part of our religious\nobservance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Christians who still use the traditional language of\n“the wrath of God” tend to be wrathful persons themselves who would\nbe only too pleased to see the wrath of God descend on those they deem to be\nlacking in virtue. When their God is remiss in defending His honour with\nthunderbolt or worse, such people often take it upon themselves to smite the\nsinner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When Terrence McNally’s play, “Corpus\nChristi”, opened in New York, the Catholic League denounced as\n“blasphemous” its portrayal of Jesus and his disciples as\nhomosexuals. The theatre received fire-bomb threats, and the staff and cast\nwere told they would be killed. McNally himself received numerous death-threats\nfrom Christian zealots in the USA, and then, for good measure, and in the\nspirit of interfaith cooperation, found himself sentenced to death by the\nShari’ah Court of the UK when the play opened in London.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thomas Aquinas says in “Summa Contra\nGentiles”: “Error circa creaturas redundant in falsam de Deo\nscientiam (mistakes about creatures lead to mistaken knowledge about\nGod).” The converse is also true; mistaken knowledge about God leads to\nerrors about creatures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I always ask people who are outraged by apparent\ninsults to their chosen deit: “How big is your God?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We project many things onto God, but these are just\nthat, fallible human projections that seek to make God in our own image. God is\nnever limited by our images and our projections. If God is real, then He is a\nbig God, beyond imagining, beyond insulting, and beyond the smallness of tribal\nprojections and aspirations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The celebrated Zen Buddhist koan or paradox expresses\nthis apophatic theology: “If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill\nhim.” The Buddha that you imagine you know, whom you defend against\ninsults – he is not the Buddha, and you must rid yourself of him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Was Makkal Osai banned because the authorities want to\nappear to be even-handed in the punishment meted out to anyone who offends the\nsensitive souls of the pious? If this were the case, then the numerous Islamic\npublications — sold in Malaysian bookshops –\u00ad such as the works of (Muslim\nscholar of Comparative religion) Ahmad Deedat (Sheikh Ahmad Hussein Deedat,\n1918-2005) that caricature and condemn Christian doctrines would also be\nbanned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Did MIC internal politics play a significant role in\nthe paper’s downfall? The party has not hitherto been noted as a champion of\nChristian sensibilities and yet, it was inquisitorially zealous in its\nprosecution of the campaign against a newspaper that has been a trenchant\ncritic of the current party leadership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When Elizabeth I was urged to enforce greater\nProtestant orthodoxy in England, she is said to have responded, “I have no\ndesire to make windows into men’s souls.” We could do with such reticence\nin matters of religious conscience in Malaysia today. When politicians take it\nupon themselves to defend to the death (always the death of others, and not their\nown) the honour of God, or of God’s prophets, we would do well to ask if they\nare concerned with eternal life or their own political life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When our leaders run amuck in defence of their\nreligion, we find ourselves wishing that they would pour a fraction of that\nenergy into defending the rights of God’s poor, or into dismantling the baroque\nedifice of corruption and patronage that they, and their predecessors have\nbuilt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
God is not insulted when images of His Son, or of His\nProphet, are made into playthings. If you truly wish to mock God, then destroy\nthe environment that He made for our dwelling-place in the name of development,\nabuse the migrant and the refugee, wallow in wealth while others struggle to\nmake a living, ignore the rights of the dissident, the marginalized and the\nweak. Christians who worry too much about the offence done to a picture of\nJesus should perhaps remember that the Bible tells us that it is humanity that\nis made in the image of God: the only desecration worth talking about is the\nharm done to humanity by our violence and our indifference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The predominant Christian metaphor for the afterlife\nis that of a banquet where Jesus shares food and drink in fellowship with those\nwho are saved, and which is prefigured in the meal he shared with his disciples\nbefore he was killed. It is ironic that the man who so loved wine that he\nchanged water into wine, and drank a last cup of wine with his friends before\nhis death, should be deemed to be insulted by being portrayed enjoying a can of\nbeer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Seriously folks, no offence meant. I know we shouldn’t\nmake fun of deeply held beliefs, so I think a big hand please for Jesus\nChrist… whatever he’s drinking at the moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
~~~<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Father Aloysious Augustine Mowe is a Jesuit priest in Petaling Jaya. He wrote this piece on a Mac using a voice-recognition programme because he had a can of beer in one hand and a cigarette in the other. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Makkal Osai is a Tamil-language daily owned by former MIC deputy president S. Subramaniam. The controversial image of Jesus appeared in the newspaper’s 21st<\/sup> August 2007 edition. Having been found to have “contravened a permit condition under sub-section 6(1) of the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984”, the daily was punished with a 30-day suspension on 24th<\/sup> August 2007. <\/p>\n\n\n\n First Published: 14.09.2007 on Kakiseni<\/strong><\/em> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" An image deemed insulting to a prophet is printed in a newspaper. Religious leaders express their dismay. The common faithful see the picture as an attack on their religious beliefs. Welcome to the delicate world of religious sensitivities. But where are the violent protests? Fiery denunciations are not issued from pulpits up and down the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"iawp_total_views":2,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,3538,3543,3583],"tags":[712,515,3584,3585],"language":[7523],"writer":[7592],"class_list":["post-27203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-censorship","category-politics","category-religion","tag-censorship","tag-christian","tag-makkal-osai","tag-malaysian-indian-congress","language-english","writer-aloysious-augustine-mowe"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27203"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27203\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38760,"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27203\/revisions\/38760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27203"},{"taxonomy":"language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/language?post=27203"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/writer?post=27203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}