Tomorrow I return to my spouse's kampung after spending nearly seven months in my kampung. Our abode is in the Midlands, in Leicester where our very dear friends live though some have died.
He's a very lucky Scotsman, my spouse. The land of his forefathers is still there, intact and safe though that security did not come easy.
This line marks the pride of the Scottish: I have withstood the shock of England, of Denmark, of Rome and the world.
I so wish my Tanah Air could have reclaimed her dignity and pride after the shock of Portugal, of Holland, of Britain and the rest of the world claiming stakes and the resources of my Tanah Pusaka.
But this we have in common. The people of Scotland can sing with pride : The eyes of my sons , their bright swords are glancing. Triumphantly riding through ruin and death.
Our Police Force and our Armed Forces have done the same, like Lieutenant Adnan from the Malay Regiment who sacrificed his life and that of his brave comrades in holding back the Japanese in Singapore in February 1942.
But the Scots were proud of their sons and celebrated and remembered their sacrifice : Bold hearts and nodding plumes wave over their bloody tombs.
Malaysia was also proud of our sons, who gave up their lives during the Communist Insurgency so that the future generation could live in peace and prosperity. The nation remembers them each year , remembering those who did not come home :
Alas the Malaysian Rakyat of today, led chiefly by the 22.6 % cohort (see AsH's posting on 27 October 2019) of Malaysia's Anak and Bangsa Malaysia have decided to spit on their tombstones instead; when the ashes of the "Great Leader" of the Communist Insurrection were brought back surreptitiously into Malaysia in defiance of the law and the heartbeat of the Nation. While the Scots can sing with pride Scotland the Brave, these Malaysians who come from all levels of society, including our Leadership should hang their heads in shame. What cowards and ingrates!
In 1967, when I graduated from Singapore University, my Abah advised me to "balek" to Malaya to his and my Tanah Pusaka. But I did not heed his counsel. Finally, forty seven years later I realised where I really belonged.
But since 2009 when I finally received my Kad Pengenalan (after 5 years of waiting) almost everything that my Abah and I held dear in our Tanah Pusaka have been battered and torn by the shameful politicking and misguided and self-serving politicisation of race and rights.
"Every nation gets the government it deserves" (Joseph de Maistre).
However the inhabitants and government of Malaysia do not deserve this generous and bountiful Tanah Pusaka .
Who will find the parang kontot and slay the burong hantu, shaitan and hantu jembalang?
In his inimitable way, P. Ramlee has brilliantly described the fate of this country.
Celaka punya penyamun, Sial! Bikin rosak ana punya programme.
Buah amra masak bergetah, Baharu na'mengkal gugor sendiri. "Di pechah2 lalu perentah" Itu - lah 'akal pena'alok negeri. (From Kalong Bunga, Buku 1 oleh Za'ba)
The barely 200 year old (dating from 1789) Semenanjung Tanah Melayu aka Malaya aka Malaysia is made up of some of these peoples from Asia.
TYPES of PEOPLE from ASIA : From "Wide World Reader". The Malay and the two members of two great civilizations are circled in red.
There are the natives, the bangsa Melayu or Malays of the Semenanjung, the bangsa Cina from China and bangsa India from the Indian sub-continent. The last two groupings belong to two of the four great civilizations of the world - with a long pedigree behind them. (Babylon and Egypt are the other two).
It is puzzling that the peoples of these two great civilizations should find themselves cast into the Malay Peninsula, this finger-like extension of the Asian continent. The Semenanjung, before the penetration by Christian Europeans was known as quite an inhospitable area of dark forests, muddy rivers, hot and humid climate and almost uninhabited except for the coastlines,along the river-banks and estuaries where Malay chiefs and Sultans had set up their own territorial Sultanates sometimes in conjunction with other Malay chiefs and Sultans from the Southeast Asian Malay Archipelago. This political and cultural setup was in many ways very similar to the beginnings of the history and culture of the countries that make up Europe today.
Europe 12th century. In the Malay Archipelago, we have for instance, the Riau-Lingga Empire, the Sulu and the Brunei Sultanates and the Malacca Empire.
Europe at the beginning of the First World War which was actually a bloody European Civil War , nothing to do with the World but which engulfed the rest of the World nevertheless. Note the map of the Races of Europe. You could do the same map of the Malay Archipelago with the various component 'Malay' races. Like the Europeans, the Malays are SERUMPUN.
Who knows, if we had been given as much time and freedom from Colonisation as the European nations : the Malays of the Malay Archipelago could have 'developed' their Archipelago politically and advance the existing trading and mercantile network between their various entities. Perhaps like in the history of Europe, which was peppered with many infightings, wars, deaths by assassinations, guillotines and being drawn and quartered, internecine squabbles, rapings and lootings and having an incorrigible King like Henry VIII of England who changed the country from Catholicism to Protestantism just so he could divorce his first wife; the Nusantara might have gone through such a colourful tapestry of 'development' and nation building.
The Malays and their Sultans , their Admirals, Generals and merchant class could have had a right old wild and gory romping history- just like the Europeans. Alas they were denied the political and economic 'rite of passage' that other civilizations went through. Because, along came Western firepower, Capitalism and Christianity and the huge import of foreign workers to service the purpose of the Empire. The Malays were emasculated into (so they claim) boring, lazy, indolent, untrustworthy, shameless people; and everything else you can throw at us, including the kitchen sink and our Value System!
The Malays they reckoned. should be left as padi farmers, fishermen, policemen and also cannon fodder to protect the Empire and later their Tanah Air. Oops, I forgot. When the Malays leave their cosy villages for the urban centres, they can be assured of vocations like becoming a driver, a gardener, servants (but not chefs because you see, they have this particular aversion to the pig!) and if they can read and write, maybe they can be employed as peons and office boys and mailmen.
Just think what the EC is all about - to re-patch and unite the old warring nation states. One feature, amongst others, that member states are unhappy with is the freedom of movement of people across the borders within the EC. Wow, I thought. They inflicted that licence (for people who are as different to the Malays like chalk and cheese) on to our part of the world and we have to live with the toxic consequences.
What is all this preamble about? I wanted to set up a background scenario for what is happening to this Golden Chersonese, to the insolence coming from the descendants of 4000 years of culture and civilization, from those who in our peribahasa ,
Datang tidak di jemput, Pergi tidak di halang.
.... for the likes of Eric Liew.
You did not just make "a rude comment". Thank your lucky stars that you are in the land of DYMM Yang di Pertuan Agong and not in Thailand. You have perhaps validated this version of the sayings of the great Chinese philosopher Confucius.
... except in your case your bete noir has not done anything "unto you". In fact you and your fore-fathers have had a free run to " do unto" this country and prosper.
The ultimate question is, "How did this multi-racial,multi-lingual, multi-religious democratic country foster the foment of such renegades?"
WHO LET THESE DOGS OUT?
REFERENCE
The maps in colour are from A New Atlas of World History by W and A. K Johnston and J W Bacon, 1956. The one in black and white is from Wheatons Atlas of British and World History,1949.
They pulled you out of the Fire Engine vehicle and beat you up into a pulp.
You were treated in the best Hospital in Kuala Lumpur, where Malaysia's great and good are also treated. But despite all their efforts and the prayers of your beloved family your battered body had very little chance.
You gave back to Malaysia and the Malays especially, their sense of pride and dignity in these difficult times when your people are being tarred and tarnished for the agenda and benefit of the opportunists looming large in the Semenanjung.
No child should depart this earth before their parents. But your parents have given us and sacrificed their "anak yang salih", for "Nusa dan Bangsa".
Our gratitude and doa for you and for them too.
Untuk Cucu Ku Sayang ( as I am old enough at 74) . You have lived up to ( and died for ) any parents' aspirations for their child. The above is a poem 'Ánakku Sayang ' by Dharmawijaya.
As for those snivelling and bloodthirsty cowards and their 'sponsors', and all those involved in the Bollywood Saga of the Sri Mariamman Temple, may they choke each day on their self-righteous hypocrisy and opportunism.
Finally, it's quite unthinkable that the law in this country, in this Malaysia Baru would release two of the four suspects on a $2000 court bond for a deliberate attack on a member of the Subang Jaya Fire and Rescue Station's Emergency Response System (EMRS) officer who was just doing his duty. The other two were released on police bail.
What is $2000 worth? Osman, our road sweeper friend earned half of that in one month!! It means you can be a suspect in beating up half-dead , any serving public officer and be released on a bond worth just two months of a road sweeper's salary. It certainly makes no dent in the pocket of the bonder or bailor if the suspect absconds.
The Attorney General in the UK will most certainly face the ire of the British Press and public if the suspects of such a ferocious attack on an Emergency Fireman are treated with kid gloves like in Malaysia.
Got back to our Leicester abode a week ago and landed smack-dab in the middle of the countdown of the election for the 45th President of the United States. So we stayed up (also because of jet lag) for the nail biting results and was quite pleased that the uneducated "basket of deplorables" (Clinton's description of Trump supporters) gave the self-righteous hypocrites and educated liberals of Clinton's ilk a good kick of reality.
Above all, it is so satisfying to see how the election has exposed all the bigotry and extremism around issues of race, religion (Islam in this case), and immigration in this font of the Free World.
I applaud the victory, because now those non-white, non-Christian, non-liberal nations who have been accused of various malfeasances can heave a sigh of relief to know that they are not the only 'basket of deplorables' on this earth. My word! "Deplorables" also exist in the Free World and they are claiming and winning their ground. And true to form (just like the well tutored 'liberals' in the non-western countries) the Clintonistas (and Brexit Remainders) are very sore losers: they take to the streets to denounce the results, and they claim the electoral system which is enshrined in their Constitution is flawed and needed to be revamped. Does that sound familiar? Are we witnessing an American Spring? , a Squeaky Clean Demonstration?
It's just another scenario of saucy geese and ganders -"What is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander")
On getting back to Leicester I snapped this photo when I was on my way to the Co-op.
The image indicates a parking lot for the disabled owners of the car. But it's so tempting to put another interpretation. Is it the car/driver that is disabled or the potholes, that symbolize the damaged and unrepaired surrounds of where the car is parked. Or maybe both! I suppose we could apply the same obfuscation to hurrah-words like 'democracy', 'freedom' and 'equality'.
To me it's so symbolic of the state of the richest countries in the world. The election of Trump as the president of the most powerful country on this planet should teach Malaysians several lessons.
1. Debunk the myth that western liberal democracies - their lifestyle, and their culture - are worthy of imitation, to be transplanted into all nations. Western democracies have shown again and again that they will not spare the rod to turn other economies and culture to get tied up to their apron strings. Note most recently the fate of Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, Yemen, and Syria!
If they are capable of setting the dogs of globalisation and neoliberalism on their own working class (whites) and their poor, why should they lose sleep over the emaciated economies and societies of the rest of the non-white, non-Judaeo-Christian world?
George Monbiot has this to say about American democracy in general and Trump specifically.
...... the US ...... now suffers the worst of both worlds: a large electorate dominated by a tiny faction. Instead of republics being governed, as Madison (America's fourth president) feared, by "the secret wishes of an unjust and interested majority", they are now beholden to the not-so-secret wishes of an unjust and interested minority. What Madison could not have foreseen was the extent to which unconstrained campaign finance and a sophisticated lobbying industry would come to dominate an entire nation, regardless of its size. For every representative, Republican or Democrat, who retains a trace element of independence, there are three sitting in the breast pocket of corporate capital. Since the supreme court decided that there should be no effective limits on campaign finance, and, to a lesser extent, long before, candidates have been reduced to tongue-tied automata, incapable of responding to those in need of help, incapable of regulating those in need of restraint, for fear of upsetting their funders.
Read more in https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/oct/26/donald-trump-outsider-system-elections
(Wannabe political fashionistas in Malaysia should beware of dipping their hands into donations boxes from abroad - they could turn into the 'tongue-tied automata ' of the American empire .... or is that what they actually desire?)
2. For many reasons, Trump has been demonised as a monster, succumbing to the lowest common denominator of all that American (and Western) civilisation holds dear. Trump, in the liberal perception, is a racist, a misogynist, a demagogue and an islamophobe.
But Donald J Trump did not invent Islamophobia, and neither is he its only purveyor and practitioner. In denouncing Trump's Islamophobic klaxon-call, 'educated' Muslims are losing the context of the theory and practice of Islamophobia.
Whether the ruling elites are Republicans or Democrats, antipathy to Islam - and by association, the Palestinians and Gazans - holds them together.
Ash has, in the past, wrote several postings on this issue and here are several extracts to support my conviction. As I said earlier, anti-Islam sentiments did not begin with Trump or in the United States.
Extract 1
In the beginning - from the pre-Christian era : Arabs = Islam. Therefore Islam lies and deceives.
Extract 2
From Roget's Thesaurus :
Extract 3
From some time ago ......
Extract 4
From not too long ago ......
3. Trump's Wall.
Two thousand years ago, Emperor Shih Huangti constructed The Great Wall of China to protect the people and territory of China from invasions.
In 122 AD Hadrian's Wall was constructed to keep out the native (and barbaric) Picts and Scots from invading the Roman province of Britannia.
The Israeli Apartheid Wall is different from all other Walls. The Israeli Wall is a prison corralling people in the West Bank in the world's largest prison.
We don't hear any bleatings of anger and protests from the Republicans or Democrats or from the global Human Rights Industry over this wall.
So,what's so special about the wall to be built by the United States 45th President? As he also intends to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, he might as well pick up tips for his Wall from Israel. But just make sure it's cost- effective. Don't employ labour from Israel or the US - get the Mexicans to do it quick and cheap.
So Trump intends to expel 2-3 million illegals from Mexico. In this case he is simply continuing President Obama's legacy.
4. Tags for Trump and Gender : Women, misogyny, glass ceilings, Muslim women.
Nafs nafs. I shan't assault my readers with more renditions of the same song. But here's my favourite. A cartoon is worth a thousand articles.
This is taken from a brilliant book , The True and Barbaric History of the Benighted States of America by Jim Hughes - Quartet Books Limited, 1973. Great Britain. I bought it from a car boot sale at Saddington, Leicester sometime in the early 1990s.
Liberation theology for Hawaiian and all women.
Liberation is available not only to Hawaiian women but to all who seeketh the golden chalice of choice.
My grave oversight - I forgot to record the source of this image. All I can recall is, it came from a serious article on the internet.
Finally, we (have to) look forward to the reign of the 45th President of the United States. The so-so 44th will move to greener pastures.
Long live Mr. President Donald J Trump - " the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States and of the Militia of the several States when called into the actual service of the United States."
Hold on. I hear a little voice. Words referring to a sacred text that you know so well.
Please Mr President, could you find a way to correct a historical calumny - against the First People of this nation. If you can make laws to protect the dignity and human rights of Semites (of Judaic origin) and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transexual citizens, perhaps you could erase the reference to us as "the merciless Indian savages whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions."
From the American Declaration of Independence - indicting the king of England for trampling Americans' rights and liberties.
When you can grant us this dignity, we can truly and heartily roar your clarion call 'Glory Hallelujah' and Make America Great!
KUDOS to Malaysia for taking immediate action against the European showoffs (even if it's only 4 out of 10) for their blatant display of arrogance and contempt for local beliefs and culture on Mount Kinabalu, Sabah.
I wonder - what if some Malaysians (male and female) peeled off their clothes and urinated at .....
Petroglyphs Park Woodview, Ontario (Photo by Robin L. Lyke)
Maeshowe, Orkney Islands - part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site - just like Mount Kinabalu.
... and
Assen Megalithic Site (Netherlands) containing granite 5,500 year old burial mounds.
It seemed that Ms Eleanor Hawkins, aged 23, a graduate in aeronautical engineering, was quite 'upset' and 'distressed' , according to her father. Being arrested is 'not a situation she's been in before'!. Oh dear, how many times have she and her 9 comrades been in situations where they go starkers just for the hell of it!
Because this news item referred to Malaysia, I always get very curious about the comments contributed in The Independent. This is because ....
Extract from MORI social research institute "You are what you read" by Bobby Duffy and Laura Rowden
..... as seen from the research above, the readership of The Independent is not made up of the 'great unwashed' and the hoi polloi. The last-mentioned inhabit papers like The Sun and the Daily Star. As for The Independent, 46% of the readers come from the top A/B class ( Higher, intermediate managerial administration, professional occupations who make up 22% of the population) and 36% from the C1 class (Supervisory, clerical and junior managerial, administrative, professional occupations making up 30.8% of UK's population).
Quite a number of the comments were quite sympathetic to the distress of the people in Sabah. There were others who were simply bigoted and pig ignorant.
But , as I expected, any news pertaining to Malaysia never fail to bring out a good dose of Malay-Muslim bashing, a favourite pre-occupation of the 'liberals' in UK's media.
The irony of it - Malaysia (a "muslim majority country notorious for discriminating against every other race and any other religion" ) - is adamantly critical of the insult and distress heaped on her native and Christian population in Sabah and took immediate action to bring these miscreants to justice.
KUDOS to Singapore for taking swift action against 16 year-old Amos Yee ...
.... for 'crossing the line between freedom and offence' (Chia Boon Teck). In March this year he was arrested - facing multiple criminal charges - when on You Tube he called Lee Kuan Yew a "horrible person". made an offensive drawing of Lee Kuan Yew and Margaret Thatcher having sex and went on to describe Jesus and the late Lee Kuan Yew as both "power hungry and malicious'.
He's out on bail of GBP9,800 and faces a fine and up to three years jail if found guilty.
To quote a Singapore lawyer Chia Boon Teck, Amos Yee's "utterance against Christians amounted to a 'deliberate intent to wound religious feelings' ".
BRICKBATS to Malaysia for allowing Alvin Tan and other mainly non-Malay and non-Muslim cybertroopers to get away with 'utterances' against Islam and Muslims with a 'deliberate intent to wound religious feelings'.
Like the 16 year-old Amos Yee, Alvin and the other hate-mongers were citizens of the country they deliberately offended.
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As I finish this posting, Leicester time is 6.48 am. I don't think I will find time to read up on Malaysian news. I have to get on with preparations for another peregrination - to balek kampung - to my tanah air riddled with Pontianaks!
This video I hope will bring a degree of meaning and explanation to Ah Bin's and his cronies' (the Ah Kows' ) raison d'etre. (Who let the dogs out)
Just to add a bit more punch, here's a little comment from Mah Lai Kwai. (It is written mostly in Singlish - a hybrid language of Sino-Singapore-English. It is also the 'lingua franca' in Malaysia).
Mah Lai Kwai says: Aiyaah Ah Bin why you soo.. ah beng one? Why this video show you topless - you a reel attention seeker.
You want people to see your body becos you tink you can look like Bruce Lee ah ....
.... or mebbe now you run away to 'Melika you want to show off like the ang mo Aidan Turner - throbbing heart throb from Engerland.
You want to know how Aidan Turner got that rippling muscles? He say he use special " baby oil". He no need go to gym - orso he never eat 'Bak Kut Teh. You remember how you recommend this to Muslim?
You so terok, lah. Muslim cannot eat pork, not like you, who can eat anything that got 4 legs ... and moves. You know or not, when you pose with no shirt on, you don't show respect to your forefathers who come to Malay country from Tongsua, to work and make and save money.
You know how your forefathers work so hard, and build up a prosperous life for your parents and you - so dat you can afford to escape and live in 'Melika? Now you make fun of Muslim Azan. You forgot ah? You so 'chickopet', so 'hamsab' you make sexy video of you and your girlfriend until Singapore garmen take away your scholarship.
Alvin Tan : The former Asean Scholar was stripped of his scholarship after he posted sexually explicit photos of himself and his girlfriend in an online blog in October 2012. The National University of Singapore (NUS) law student who is a Malaysian, also earned himself a semester's suspension for the brazen acts. Mr Tan did not complete his law studies.
You really one kind - sooo typical - the kind my office people call the shit-stirrer. Long ago, in Singapore, we have the night soil man who work clearing the 'jamban' .
The Jamban
The Night Soil Man - from Wikipedia
With you, only one difference - the night-soil man do public service and remove the shit. You only stir and stir the same bucket of sai. No wonder you cannot finish your law degree! You tink you want to be 'hero' - like "Je suis Ah Bin" !! I hope my Muslim friends in Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia 'boh chap' this sicko. Now you live in 'Melika you watch your step. You give dem trouble, where you want to run? (Hey what passport you carry ah?) Remember how you so happy to go to 'melika, you publish picture of yourself, naked except for the red nappy - like a selfie - next to Statue of Liberty?
Well, Alvin, be careful.... even 'melika not always so chin chai man!
A 19th century cartoon of a Chinaman with pigtail taking over the Statue of Liberty
Kam sia, L. K. Mah
******************************** Back to Ash
Thank you Mah Lai Kwai.
Muslims in Malaysia can expect many more wannabe "Je suis Ah Bin" on You Tube and other websites.
Just keep calm, don't get yourself hyperventilated by jibes from this yellow culture.
**********************************
Glossary boh chap - can't be bothered
angmo - caucasian
malaikwai - a pejorative term used by Chinese (in Singapore and Malaysia) for Malays. There's also angmokwai (red face devil) for Caucasians and kalingkwai for Indians.
ah beng - a stereotype of young Chinese men in Singapore and Malaysia. It's like the term 'Mat' for young Malay men and 'chav' for the English.
chickopet and hamsab - a flirt and a dirty old/young man whose brain is located in the groin area.
kam sia - thank you
sai - faeces
cin cai - relaxed and easy going
yellow culture - the late Lee Kuan Yew described any form of culture that is non-Asian as 'yellow' during the early days of Singapore's independence. I remembered when the song "Puff, the magic dragon" by Peter, Paul, and Mary was banned as a result of Lee's 'cleansing'. However the reference to 'yellow' has many other meanings. It can mean 'cowardly' or when used with the banana, it refers to a westernized Chinese - yellow on the outside and white on the inside.
In the light of the recent series of murders and atrocities committed by our earthlings, as always Mark Steele of The Independent provides us with a very sane, even-handed and comic-satirical overview of the event that is leaving the world (well, some ) drenched in self-righteous anger and hurt.
Mark Steele's headline reads " Charlie Hebdo : Norway's Christians didn't have to apologise for Anders Brevik, and it's the same for Muslims now. It's as if no one in any Western country has ever gone berserk with a gun in a public place before."
I reckon the worldwide rallying call of 'Je suis Charlie' should be supplemented with 'Je ne suis pas Anders Brevik"! Perhaps I should also add more denials from the Judaeo-Christian West (and from our non-JC liberals) as in 'Je ne suis pas George Bush (junior and senior), Tony Blair, Ariel Sharon, Benyamin Netyanahu', Sarkozy - and that's taking into account only the last 25 years.
Jerome Taylor, also from the Independent, wrote "It's Charlie Hebdo's right to draw Muhammad, but they missed the opportunity to do something profound ."
Taylor defended Charlie Hebdo's right to be 'offensive' but he also had this to say : "What they have instead produced is predictably naff. The few pages I have seen so far - and I must admit it's not the whole book - clearly pokes fun at the Prophet as much as it supposedly informs the reader about his life."
"Charlie Hebdo has a long and proud tradition (Taylor's underline, not mine) of being offensive and outrageous .... The West is a 'liberal democracy where free speech (which includes the right to be crass) is treasured'. If that's the case - where is the much lauded right of the west to be irreverent, mocking and crass in the following cases?
1. Why did the New England Brewing Company issue an apology after "a legal action was filed in an Indian court claiming that the use of Gandhi's image on the beer cans .......
...... was "condemnable" and punishable under Indian laws." (5 January 2015). Doesn't the Prophet of 1.6 billion Muslims ( 23 % of the world's population) deserve the same respect? ===============
2. Whatever inspired this 24 year old from Leicester to place a pig's head outside a Muslim place of worship on Boxing Day of 2012? We know why. But as he had apologised for "causing religiously aggravated harassment' his 12 weeks' imprisonment was suspended. But Liam Ferrar was no media bigwig , he had no choice but to do a retreat. =================
3. A UKIP ( UK Independence Party) councillor who blamed the the heavy flooding of December 2013 on the legalisation of gay marriage was suspended by his Party. Some people have greater sensitivities to be protected unlike the Prophet of 1.6 billion Muslims. ==================
The Chief Rabbi , Lord Sacks regarded Lady Tonge's remarks as "dangerous, inflammatory and unacceptable." Well, many Muslims feel the same way about the the surfeit of cartoons on the Prophet including that by Charlie Hebdo. But any mockery and disrespect for Islam is kosher meat for the believers of freedom of expression in the West - though a sort of self-censorship is practiced for some 'protected cultural groups'. ===============
5. Suzanne Moore a writer of "proudly Leftist opinions", wrote that 'modern women were coming under pressure to look like Brazilian transsexuals'. The result? Moore was accused of being a fascist (remember the accusation of being Islamofascists?) and she was forced to close her Twitter account. Her buddy Julie Burchill was incensed at this and described the transsexual lobby as ' a bunch of bedwetters in bad wigs' etc etc.
This retort really riled up Lynne Featherstone the Lib Dem MP for Hornsey and Wood Green and International Development Minister in Britain's Coalition government. She accused Burchill of 'inciting hatred' against transsexuals (exactly how Muslims feel about anti-Muslim cartoons including those spewing from Charlie Hebdo) and she wanted Julie Burchill and the Observer's editor be sacked!!
Did the Observer ( which is owned by the 'impeccably liberal' Guardian media Group) stand on their right of free speech and the freedom of the Press? No! They removed Burchill's article from the internet. It was replaced with a piece by ' a purple-haired woman called Roz accusing Burchill of "legitimising the currency of hate speech" '. To hell with freedom of speech!!
If only, oh if only Muslims could have the ears and heart of such a caring Minister and a purple-haired woman somewhere who would sing her same words 'to soothe the savage beast' that we Muslims are. ===================
6. Ben Ari an orthodox Jew and an Israeli law maker, tore up the Bible and then posed for photographs with the dismembered holy book (July 18, 2012).
The reason? The copy of the New Testament was mailed to him by Christian missionaries. Ben-Ari stated millions of Jews were slaughtered in the name of the Bible.
" Many Christians over the centuries persecuted Jews, holding them responsible for Jesus' crucifixion". Read : http://news.yahoo.com/religious-israeli-lawmaker-tears-testament-101541114.html ====================
7. An American brewery company had to apologise for naming a beer after the Hindi Goddess Kali (May 15 2012).
The demand was made in Rajya Sabha that US Ambassador to India should be summoned and asked to apologise for it."
......... a bikini lined with images of the Buddha was removed from the market without a whimper by the American retailer 'Victoria's Secret'.
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9. A belated addition - 17 Jan 2015.
A matter of (French) sauce for the goose is (Muslim) sauce for the gander.
=====================
The 'Je suis Charlie' deaths will certainly justify and boost the agenda and the policies of the right wing extremists not only in France but everywhere else in the West where immigrants are regarded as unwanted aliens. There is a moral in all this for Muslims. They say the pen is mightier than the sword. For decades, that has been the strength of Charlie Hebdo. So, if Muslims must "take up arms" against the West's anti-Islam agenda (whether liberal or fascist) they must be proficient with the pen, with the books and the computer, with their own quick-wittedness, wisdom, and knowledge, knowledge, knowledge.
Know your enemy - they have a larger and more sophisticated arsenal, both of real swords, and of words they dress up as freedom of expression.
Finally, where were all the protestors wielding their pens and wearing their 'je suis Charlie' tags and switching off their lights all those years ago when the world looked at these grim images and then turned their faces away?
NOUS SOMMES PALESTINIANS :Bodies of Palestinians killed by Israeli 'swords'
Nous Sommes Americains et Anglais. Tu est Iraqi/Arab.
Je suis Americain aussi.
"Je suis Saher." Elle a quattre ans, elle est morte.
What happened in Paris is more complicated than the issue of extremist fanatical Muslims against liberty and freedom of speech in France or anywhere else in the world.
France may be the purveyors of 'Liberte, Fraternite and Egalite' but France also has a very dirty record of brutal occupation and treatment of the Algerians.
The French conquered and ruled Algeria from 1830 until she had to abandon it in 1962. In between there were a series of atrocities and blood baths that led to many deaths but mainly of the Algerian Muslims : 45,000 in May 1945 at Setif, 1.5 million Arab Muslims and thousands of French 'colons' (white settlers in Algeria) during the 6-year War of Independence from 1954 to 1961. It was 'a brutal war of suppression of the Muslim sectors of Algeria because the French were intent to keep Algeria white. From the very beginning France subjugated the Muslim population of Algeria - "building small French towns and chateaux across the countryside" .' The Catholic Church took this opportunity to "re-christianize" Northern Africa - converting mosques into churches.
On the condition of Muslims in the West, let me quote this from Gai Eaton, a prominent British Muslim philosopher.
Our position as Muslims in the West is not an easy one, but it is my belief that this position is easier in the United States and in Britain that it is in France or Germany. Particularly in France, the situation appears to be extremely dangerous. The British will on the whole tolerate strangers in their midst. They may not like them and they certainly do not understand them, but they tolerate them. The French do not, unless these strangers integrate themselves completely into French society and French culture; in other words, unless they abandon Islam in everything but name (my underline). 'The Muslims in the West' 8 August 2010.
Lastly give a serious read to this serious cartoon-satire by Joe Sacco.
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