Om.

Sougata has written an outstanding op piece on the Caricature issue and addresses some fundamental perceptions about muslim-ness and its bias..

Just as I was about to highlight what an equivalent 'Hindu' response might have been to a similar situation, I came across this article:

Hindu gods insulted, leaders up in arms
February 14, 2006 18:51 IST

Hindu community leaders in Europe are up in arms against the display of goddess Durga's poster promoting a whisky brand and use of Lord Ram's image on a tissue paper.

It is time Hindus around the world and the Indian government stood up and be counted, Bimal Krishna Das, general secretary of the National Council of Hindu Temples, representing 90 per cent of the United Kingdom's 140 Hindu temples, said.

He said a disco bar in Greece has invited the wrath of Hindus for displaying a poster of goddess Durga promoting a whisky brand. "Large posters at the Balon Oriental Disco Bar in Athens depict the goddess carrying bottles of Southern Comfort whisky. The Indian community in Athens has been trying for the last three months to have the posters removed but in vain," said Paramjit Singh, originally from Jalandhar, now settled in Greece.

Letters have been sent to the American manufacturer of the whisky to withdraw the poster, he said. Also, despite protests, tissues bearing Lord Ram's image still remain in circulation for over a year because their German manufacturer refused to cease production, Das said.

There are two interesting aspects to this article here.. One, the description 'up in arms' has been used very carelessly. According to the article, the Hindus who were 'up in arms' basically sent letters of indignation to the American Manufacturer. Nice piece of journalism - 'while we are at it, might as well cash in on the caricature issue.' Needless to add, there is no description of any kind of violence. Clearly a very loaded headline. Second, and the more pertinent, the reaction of the Hindu to such situations and how it is so different from the classic muslim reaction.

I'd like to take a similar analogy to Sougata. Let's say right next to Al's cubicle, there worked a simple, mild-mannered guy, by the name, er.. Om Eswaraya Namahah (sorry for the lack of imagination). Let's call him Om. Om is typically a non-confrontationalist. He believes that what you get today is a result of what he did in a previous life. Ofcourse, he has no way to prove it, but suffice it to say that he thinks that if everyone dumps work on him, it is because he possibly dumped work on the very same people in another lifetime. He is scared to push back, otherwise, by some twist in the karmic process, he will get pushed back in another life.. He believes that you have to fight for what is right, but is typically consfused about what that 'right' is.

Time goes on and several of his colleagues notice funny looking images of typically human looking creatures but with enormous paraphernalia. It's kinda scary look. They think, "its kinda scary looking but this eastern imagery looks kinda cool in a haloween kinda way.." Mr. Jeez rist, who also moonlights as an ad agency executive looks at a particular image and says, "hey.. with all these hands, imagine what a great ad it would be if each of these hands could hold a bottle of alcohol.. and oh look at that guy with the head of an elephant.. Sweet!" So Jeez scans an image when Om is using the men's room and then fiddles with this photoshop to put something together, and sticks it on the refrigerator door..

When Om sees it, he is obviously indignated, and decides that he is going to write a serious note of objection to the company. But he also figures that Karma will get them and goes about minding his own business. He also proceeds to his computer and initiates a bulletin board discussion and all his Hindu friends talk about how shallow and ignorant everyone else seem to be.

That about sums up a Hindu reaction to anything that may border on blasphemy. So, while Al is busy making life unplesant because of the bright red banner and the mooh daddy reference, Om is busy writing a letter to HR. Opposite spectrums if you ask me..

Would the world at large fool around with Hindu sensitivities if the Hindu community reacted to things the way the Muslim community does? Bet you that 'they' would be afraid.. very afraid to fool around with Muslim sensitivities.. the caricature issue being a glaring example. And why is that? Think Jihad, Fatwa and infidel..

Just Checkin' In..

Been a while. Just checkin in to make sure that Blogger has not deactivated my account for lack of anything interesting to say at this point. Well actually let me rephrase that.. For lack of anything interesting to blog.. Life has been extremely interesting though.

The Prophet's (peace be upon him) caricatures.. The superbowl (I loved the FedEx and the Hummer ads).. The winter olympics (which by the way, I bet no one is watching).. The caricatures.. oops.. I think I already covered that.

We have a section of people in the world who are not very happy people right now (No, I am not talking about the protesters). They have been persisting ever since the first infidel's throat was slashed by a 'pious' muslim, that Islam was the religion of peace. So far, after 2000 or so years, the hypothesis is yet to be proven. As a matter of fact, it appears that the opposite of that hypothesis is really true.

Ann Coutler's writings are not really a part of my staple reading. I think she is obnoxious and condescending and in general tends to raise the blood pressure of anyone she is speaking with. In a recent article she said, "In order to express their displeasure with the idea that Muslims are violent, thousands of Muslims around the world engaged in rioting, arson, mob savagery, flag-burning, murder and mayhem, among other peaceful acts of nonviolence. The rioting Muslims claim they are upset because Islam prohibits any depictions of Muhammad -- though the text is ambiguous on beheadings, suicide bombings and flying planes into skyscrapers." Me thinks she has a point!

Now, don't get me wrong. I have plenty of truly peace loving friends who happen to be Muslims. What I don't get is what's wrong with the other 99.99% of them? Don't they value human lives? All the talk of virgins aside, anyone who is willing make hell out of life here so that he can go to heaven deserves to be... trying hard not to sound like a angered fundamentalist muslim... er.. put in the same room as GWB and Ann Coutler and locked there for 5 years and forced into a conversation about liberals and Nucular WMD, and their relevance in modern day Halal diets and the holy prophet. Now there is an interesting conversation.

On a lighter note, I believe that when Mr. President Bush visits India later this year, he will not visit the 'samadhi' of Mahatma Gandhi, because he believes that the Gospel of Jesus Christ views cremation as a pagan practice. Good for him.

Sadam Hussein is seeing the benefits of being occupied by a civilized modern nation. He actually gets to walk out of court and yell abuses at the judge and the lawyers without the threat of having chemical weapons being couriered to his house with best wishes from the administration.

The Superbowl. The Seahawks should have won. The Steelers had a fantastic run knocking off 4 of the best offensive teams out there, so I guess they deserved to win. The game was a bit boring, and I am sure you would all agree that we have seen better and more exciting games in previous years. Add to that, there was no Janet Jackson or her wardrobe malfunction at half time and that removed any chance of making the whole thing more interesting. Thank heavens that there were no wardrobe malfunction with the Rolling Stones! The ads were good.

Oh well.. until later then..

The hate mail can now begin.