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MALAYSIAN GROVEL





When "The New Straits Times" -- a Malaysian daily newspaper -- published the cartoon above, they got into BIG hot water. Below is the first part of their grovel over it. They had reason to grovel, mind you. Malaysia is run by Muslims so there is no free speech there and people can and do get thrown into jail for what most Westerners would see as unjustified reasons.

"Obviously, we misjudged how different people would react to Wiley Miller's Non Sequitur syndicated cartoon published by the New Straits Times last Monday. We have written to the Internal Security Ministry in response to its letter asking us to show cause, explaining the processes involved and how the cartoon came to be published. It is a process involving the human factor, and humans err.

We told the ministry the same thing we are telling you - that we may have misjudged how different people would react to the cartoon, which, as we have pointed out to the authorities, was NOT one of the 12 produced by Danish cartoonists that outraged Muslims throughout the world. It was a totally different cartoon.

It was wry humour by an artist whose work is syndicated in more than 700 newspapers, including those in Islamic countries, and whose strip has run in the NST since 1998. There was no caricature of the Prophet Muhammad at all in that cartoon; nor was there any derogatory comment made about the Prophet or Islam.

Perhaps, in more ordinary circumstances, such a cartoon would not have received more than a passing mention. Yet, these are different times. The Muslim world was outraged by the blasphemy of the Danish and European newspapers. When the Sarawak Tribune and Guang Ming Daily reproduced pictures depicting the caricature of the Prophet, the Government acted firmly and suspended both newspapers. Their editors and publishers were held accountable.

In the case of Wiley Miller's cartoon in the NST, there was no caricature of Prophet Muhammad at all. NONE. And that is why we believed it was inoffensive. But just as we have received letters and emails, many from Muslims, saying they could not see what the fuss was all about, there are also those who feel strongly about this.

They include some members of the Cabinet, including newly appointed Information Minister Datuk Zainuddin Maidin; NGOs, former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and his son Datuk Mukhriz Mahathir, the Opposition Parti Islam se-Malaysia, and others who have called the NST office to register their protest.

But again, we want to make very clear: There was no caricature of the Prophet published in the NST. We have always been sensitive to religious feelings. In fact, the NST is the most multiracial newspaper in the country because we have a very good mix of Malaysians working with us at all levels.

Source




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