After the outcry from the mollahs, I asked a friend who keeps
Prothom Alo, to show me the cartoon, and found it only mildly
amusing, and certainly not offensive. It is more or less like what
Mr. Adnan has described above, an inappropriate use of the name
Mohammad by a little kid confused by an overzealous moulvi saheb. It
reminded me of my student days abroad when I was told by a
Bangladeshi colleague doing research in the same institution, that
he felt embarrassed when his English colleagues called him by his
first name - Mohammad, which of course we never use except in
official documents. I advised him as a joke to ask his colleagues
also to say 'sallallahu alaihe wa sallam' after his name, as it was
the name of the Prophet and there is a Muslim custom of saying that
dorud whenever the Prophet's name was uttered. Our mollahs should
think about the cases of Fida Hossain , the Indian artist, creating
a problem in India by painting some Devis naked. Most Hindus quickly
came to his defense against a similar opportunistic outcry from BJP
and other fundamentalists. In the West films like Jesus Christ
Superstar, or the Last Temptation of Christ, which were less than
reverent, hit the box office.
Certainly this innocent cartoon was nowhere near the Taslima Nasreen
writings or Rushdie's Satanic Verses, or the Danish cartoons,
against which the question of deliberate attempt to incite might be
validly raised. I am quite sure this young cartoonist had absolutely
no idea it would land him in jail during this pro-Jamaat regime. The
latest news is the banning of the Eid issue of Saptahik 2000, where
a short story very similar to Humayun Azad's 'Pak sar zamin shaad
baad' was published. The principal character was unnecessarily
named Moulana Delwar Hossain. That must have incurred the wrath of
Mainul Hosein - the Jamaati in the government.
About our beloved Matiur Rahman - the Edior of Prothom Alo, friend
of the present government, I will say nothing. All Magsaysay Prizes
are rewards for serices to the West. Well, the Americans are known
to shoot down their own men too, sometimes.
[Disclaimer: ALOCHONA Management is not liable for information contained in this message. The author takes full responsibility.]
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