When you’ve got a billion people, eventually some idiot will say something embarrassing that gets splashed in the news. Too bad in both the US and India, it’s often a senior politician. In this particular case, a UP minister is tossing in more bounty for the head(s) of a certain group of Danish cartoonists –
Rs 51-crore reward for Danish cartoonist’s head, says UP Minister
LUCKNOW, MEERUT, FEBRUARY 17: The Minister for Minority Welfare and Haj in the Mulayam Singh Yadav government, Haji Yaqoob Qureishi, has announced a cash reward of Rs 51 crore [~$11.5M] for anyone who beheads the Danish cartoonist who caricatured Prophet Mohammad.
Luckily, in India at least, cooler Muslim heads are talking back –
…the All India Muslim Personal Law Board member and Naib Imam of Aishbagh Idgah, Maulana Khalid Rasheed Firangi Mahali, criticised the Minister’s call for the killing of the cartoonist… “The Minister’s statement is anti-Shariat, anti-Islam and anti-humanity,” Mahali said.
And I hope that it’s because of heads like Mr. Mahali, that India hasn’t fully joined the cartoon fatality epidemic sweeping the globe (click the map below for one of the better applications of web mashups) –
As we’ve been saying Europe-side, since this chap spoke up a few days back, I might even be tempted to go Boba Fett for that amount of moolah (no pun intended) but the kicker is he doesn’t have that kind of money! Damn false promises…he’ll feel like a right noodle if I turn up with the cartoonists’ heads and he only has fifty rupees and a tiffin box.
(Seriously though V, ‘UP Gov’t joins Fray’ – it’s just one minister)
With respect to the situation in India and Pakistan, I cite Amit Varma and his conversation with Zafar Abbas, the head of BBC in Pakistan. Amit Varma’s India Uncut: Link to Article.
Amit Varma writes:
“Most of the people demonstrating against the cartoons haven’t even seen them,” he says. “In fact, if you ask them where Denmark is, most of them won’t know.”
“So why bother to protest then?” I ask. “Who benefits from these protests?”
“The religious groups which organise these protests do so just to register their position,” he says. “In future, if they’re ever asked about this issue, they can point to the protests and say, ‘See, we took a stand.’”
“And is that the only way they know to register their protest?”
“Yes.”
bong breaker – very good point… updating the title from “UP govt” to “UP Minister Joins Fascist Fray”
Vinod, too bad the complier of the map to which you link isn’t as scrupulous about accuracy as you are — while the heading of the map is captioned “Cartoon Riots …” it looks like a majority of the dots on the map are for “various demonstrations,” almost of all of them apparently peaceful. It’s an unfortunate elision.
As I had noted earlier that this Minister is from “Samajwadi Party”, which has given its support to the “secular” central govt. of India. This is “secular” for you, India style 🙂
A Minister actually announced an award for killing the cartoonist? Is that not against the law? (Law, not Sharia ‘Law’) How can you possibly rationalize somebody’s killing in the name of religion.. Boy we sure got retarded ministers.
These kind of people are all talk and no cock. If he really feels so strongly about it then why doesn’t he behead the cartoonist himself. I see this as no different from Pat Robertson’s call to assasinate Hugo Chavez.
These dingbats just want to be in the news…that’s all there is to it.
No wonder Sania Mirza is too scared to play with her Iraeli doubles partner. Idiots like this guy and the rest of his crazed ilk are turning the doomsday clock closer to a global clash between secularists and Islamic fanatics.
I see this as no different from Pat Robertson’s call to assasinate Hugo Chavez.
pat robertson is not an appointed government official.
Where does an Indian government minister get $11 million anyways ? This guy should be fired, but ofcourse he wont be.
Just after the massive Gujarat quake of 2001, T John, a miniter in Karanataka Government said the quake was: “the punishment of God to the people for ill-treating Christians and minorities in the state.”
The Catholic Bishops Conference of India, promtly asked him to resign and stated :”These comments are un-Christian. The church is not retributive, and does not endorse vindictiveness. God is ever merciful.”
I don’t think in UP anyone is going to ask him to resign. I really don’t think anyone is going to take him seriously either.
‘The’ Danish cartoonist? I thought there were at least 6 or 7. Hmmm… $80 million Hmmm…
Another example of the few from the sophisticated bunch of Indian Politicians. U.P. and Bihar have got quite a handful of these good-for-nothing talented ones. Not sure but where I read it, it said $1 million. I think its timesofindia.com (Trash, I don’t trust that tabloid anyways).
It mentioned being asked the question BB mentioned. His response, “I would collect this money. Muslim women are even ready to sell their jewellery for this…..”. BS. Just trying to drag sympathy or create a stir.
Wait, this is “intent to murder” right? Isn’t the criminal in India? Why isn’t the government jumping on his (clearly inflated) head and putting him behind bars?
According to officials, if Danish government(or embassy) lodges a formal complaint, the government has to take an action against the minister.
as this controversy sweeps over india, lucknow just had a protest involving lakhs of muslims taking to the streets. i was pretty fascinated because the entire protest was geared as an anti-american protest, with a mock funeral of president bush, and the smashing of domino’s and cafe coffee day… there seemed to be no mention of the fact that the whole controversy eminated from denmark, but was an outlet for anti-american viewpoints and issues.
not surprisingly, even in this protest unlikely people become friends in the face of a greater enemy, in this case the sunni and shia communities came together, though they have strained relations usually. it seems they jointly planned the protest. what is the quote? war makes strange bedfellows?
shots were fired, and there were businesses damaged but no one was significantly hurt, thankfully. no mention was made of this minister’s comments at the protest, instead an imam said that the west was hell bent on creating more osama bin ladens through it’s carefully executed alienation of young muslims — not a bad point.
That was a seperate Pakistani cleric. The UP minorities welfare and Hajj pilgrimage minister was just being patriotic and showing up the Pakistanis.
DDiA,
I don’t know the exact legal details, but according to the various Indian satellite/cable news channels (who have jumped all over this), he can be prosecuted for violation of several sections of the Indian penal code. There’s certainly a major conflict of interests between his position as a minister and the fact that he thinks it’s acceptable for him to order the assassination of foreign citizens, Ayatollah-style.
Apparently there are also some calls for India to recall its ambassador from Denmark as a mark of protest against the cartoons, although considering India isn’t an Islamic (or Muslim-majority) country, I’m not sure about the feasibility or propriety of this.
Theresa,
As you may know, there have been some protests in Indonesia too, where the US embassy was the prime target. You’re right in stating that this whole issue is expanding into a general anti-Western “movement” now. Even relatively-secular Turkey had a huge protest gathering during the weekend (with tens of thousands of people), and it wasn’t just about the cartoons anymore, but to show solidarity with the Palestinians and Iran. According to some news channels like CNN, this is now increasingly about pan-Islamic unity and defending what is perceived to be an attack on the very fundamentals of Islam.
Also, in some quarters of the Islamic world, the focus is expanding to the US too because they think the Mohammad cartoon controversy was part of an American conspiracy to malign Islam. Somewhat paranoid, I think.
Bengali,
There were 12. However, the cartoonist who appears to have caused the greatest offense is the one who drew the cartoon of Mohammad with a bomb in his turban.
NDTV today are running a poll asking if the minister should be sacked. Most think so, so far.
Sacked? We in India have lost all sense of proportion. Instead they should be asking whether he should be tried. I bet they’ll get more responses saying yes to the same. After every major riot or mayhem, the debate is whoever in-charge and directly complicit in the crime should be sacked or not. Damn it such people should be tried with the strictest interpretation of the law. And tried fast.
I am sure he’s breaking some law of the land there. And even if not, I hope he’s taken to task by the embassy officials (or some other international laws?). These fringenuts need to be condemened as much as the shitty cartoons.
And by God ki qasam even if he has 1/10th of that reward money, then I’ve got a bridge to sell.
I have posted on my blog Indian Minister Announces Reward for Murder a report from Arab News which says that
On the other hand,
A right wing historian David Irving just lost his case about him being imprisoned for holocaust Denial in Austria. Apparently there is a law against denying the holocaust in Austria. In this linked NPR story they talk about how HYPOCRITICAL it is that this is NOT freedom of speech but the cartoons thing is.
Freedom of speech aint so dang “absolute”, after all!! What a way to give more ammunition of the Islamic apologists!
I think this situation is different. Austria was partially responsible for the Holocaust (an actual crime). It makes sense that they would pass a law against Holocaust denying so that such a thing would never happen again. In the case of the Cartoon, Muslims haven’t been rounded up and killed in Austria. If that had happened first, THEN this would be hypocritical
Even Denmark, If I am not mistaken, has laws against printing Holocaust related literature. Besides the biggest HYPOCRACY of these so called “freedom of speech”ers is that the same paper did not print a Cartoon that would depict Christian faith in unflattering way.
I am all for passing laws against Holocaust denying, they need to get off the high horse of “freedom of speech” BS. The reason they have laws against Holocause denying, is that its infalmatory. so were the “cartoons”.
What thing would never happen again (the denial or the holocaust)? So if people never denied a historical event, how much does that really ensure it cannot happen again? Certainly, raison d’etre of that law is arguable. My point was that there are no absolutes. People who so absolutely support freedom of speech ie without any qualifications, are equally mistaken as those who equate the cartoons case to holocaust denial. That being said, jailing the ex-holocaust denier seems too much (in this particular case)- he spoke decades ago, he no longer condones holocaust-denial and he was a loony historian whom nobody would care for, anyway. Looks like a serious case of Jewish-behind kissing. Also, it will definitely provide islamic rabble-rousers with much more ammo.
Again, I think the situation is different. The Holocaust is an actual mass crime that took place. No crime has taken place in this case. Protestors are using violence because they have been offended. It is okay for a newspaper to be hypocritical. Freedom of speech allows one to not buy the newspaper if they don’t like it or to pressure the advertisers of the newspaper through boycott of goods. It is not okay for a government to be hypocritical. I see no hypocrisy here.
The protests in Pakistan have now very little to do with the cartoons, and more to do with the religious fanatics trying to organise a popular uprising against Musharraf. I wrote about this last week… and by the weekend the protestors weren’t even bothered with the cartoons, they were chanting anti-musharraf slogans. It’s a spark… where it will take us I don’t know. TBH though, I hope it doesn’t lead to Mushi’s downfall.
Back in 1989 this piece of “artistic expression” created a lot of controversy but there were no cases of arson and mass rioting by the followers of the religion whose symbol was so grossly depicted. I think this current cartoon issue is an indicator of what lies beneath the surface of the rioters mentality. To quote from the tagline of the movie “The Fly”… “be afraid… be very afraid..”
Oh .. here we go Now its the Hindus offering a bounty on the head of M F Hussain for unflattering “drawings” of deities.
Ok folks, the bounty list has expanded. Kill the following offenders and the Hindu Personal Law Board will give you: Rs. 51 Crores.
[Link]
I think the above was meant to be a satirical take-off of the statements issued by the UP minister and the fatwa issued by the state MPLB or whoever issued it.
Odd that none of these fanatics are calling for the boycott of Egypt or burning the Egyptian embassy. This blogger has scans of the Egyptian news paper that published the cartoons back in October 2005… not a sound from anyone back then. And we’re to believe that this is just “righteous indignation”…