It’s interesting how peoples’ devotion to free speech changes when it’s their sacred cow getting gored. Celebrated advocate for free speech Salman Rushdie once threatened another writer saying, “If you ever write mean things about my wife again, I’ll come after you with a baseball bat.”
An Indian Catholic has offered a Rs. 11 Lakh bounty for Da Vinci Code author Dan Brown, “Dead or Alive”
Similarly, while Catholics have not had a violent reputation for at least a century, the movie version of the Da Vinci Code is getting many of the pious hot under the collar. Cardinals at the Vatican first advocated a boycott against the movie, then unspecified legal action against the movie and the book, arguing:
“This is one of the fundamental human rights – that we should be respected, our religious beliefs respected, and our founder Jesus Christ respected,” [Link]
In India, the Catholic faithful are going further still. In Bombay, demonstrations call for the banning of the movie, and one former city official has even gone so far as to put a bounty on Dan Brown’s head:
 |
|
The movie on the right has the tagline “story of a naughty nun” |
Days before the film based on Dan Brown’s bestseller hits cinemas in the country, the Catholic Social Forum has called people of all faiths in Mumbai to fast unto death from May 12 if the government fails to ban the “anti-Christian” film. If that were not enough, a former corporator Nicholas Almeida, has done a Haji Qureishi, announcing a reward of Rs 11 lakh for anyone who “brings the author dead or alive before him”. [Link – thanks WGIIA]
[Interestingly, the HT has removed this story from their news archive, but it’s still available through the link above]
The head of the Catholic Secular Forum has also issued a veiled threat / warning about the consequences of releasing the Da Vinci Code movie:
“You can’t make fiction on a religious figure. Tempers are already running quite high and there’s no way of saying what could happen if the movie is released,” he said. [Link]
<
p> We all know about the UP minister who put a bounty on the head of the Danish cartoonist:
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 for anyone who beheads the Danish cartoonist who caricatured Prophet Mohammad [Link].
But fatwas aren’t just for Muslims any more. Just to show that they were willing to spend equal amounts of money, Hindu activists put a bounty on the head (and a lesser one on the hands) of India’s most commercially successful painter, M.F. Husain:
The Hindu Personal Law Board on Wednesday announced a Rs 51 crore reward for eliminating artist M F Husain and others while a Congress minority cell leader offered Rs 11 lakh to any “patriot” chopping off the painter’s hands for hurting Hindu sentiments. [Link]
A similar bounty was put upon others who had also offended Hindu religious sentiments. In a surprising show of ecumenicalism, however, these same Hindu activists announced they were willing to also pay for the death of the Danish cartoonist as well!
“Anyone who kills Husain for making obscene paintings of goddess Sarswati and Bharat Mata, the Danish cartoonist, those in the German company printing pictures of Ram and Krishna on tissue paper and the French filmmaker desecrating Lord Shiva will be given Rs 51 crore in cash by the board,” its president Ashok Pandey said in Lucknow. [Link]
Just in case there was any confusion about it, whatsoever, we here at Sepia Mutiny are against the gratuitous offense of religious sentiment. However, we feel the best way to deal with it is through dialogue, commercial pressure, and web mockery. That’s all. Please do not fatwa us. Who would feed the monkeys if we were gone?
Is it still a ‘fatwa’ if a threat is issued by a non muslim group ???
i personally can’t wait to see the film…loved the book. “It’s fiction people not real ” as stated by Sir Ian Mckellan on the Bill Maher show.
Are you calling my wife a cow? Say hello to my leetle friend.
And he does mean little.
I’m against the gratuitous use of the phrase ‘religious sentiment.’ It’s inevitably preceded by ‘injures’ and followed by fake outrage and government censorship for electoral pandering.
There was a lot of controversy when this “work of art” came out years ago. It even won an award partly sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts. “The Last Temptation of Christ” a far more graphic film, also ruffled some feathers back in ’88, though as far I know Martin Scorsese hasn’t been separated from his head by Catholic conservatives. I doubt any heads will roll over something as pedestrian as “The Da Vinci Code”. Of course people will spin this outcry to try and claim that all religious fanaticism is the same. Comparing Apples to Scimitars.
ennis, the group calls itself the oxymoronic “Catholic Secular Forum”, not Catholic Social Forum as you have mentioned. See the BBC source you have used.
Is there any religion I can join where I can declare a fatwa of badness on bad art? And bad books? And bringing back the leggings…didn’t we go through the eighties already? I want a fatwa on leggings! I am speaking to you, Lindsay Lohan!
Kidding! I loves the free speech….as long as things don’t get violent kids, protest the crappy art all you want. Emphasis on the NOT VIOLENT part. Is there some stupid water (no, not alcohol) out there that these dumb-dumbs are drinking, or something?
*Seriously, that Da Vinci Code sure was a page turner.
MDs definition of page-turner: book with bad writing, badly written, that you keep reading because you want to know the end already, and if you just skipped ahead, you wouldn’t feel bad about missing any of the middle. Which I mostly skimmed. Because someone gave me the book and I had about an hour to waste. The end.
[Interestingly, the HT has removed this story from their news archive, but itÂ’s still available through the link above]
interestingly, a story on the Catholic “Secular” Forum protest and their calls for the arrest of the director of Tickle My Funny Bone was similarly “disappeared” or removed soon after appearing on the ibn-live website. what’s also interesting is that no journalist has referred to these book and effigy burners as fundamentalists.
it’s an interesting condundrum for the government and censor board officials. If they do give in and ban the Da Vinci Code for fear of “hurting religious sentiment”, although it now looks like it will go ahead and open in India as elsewhere despite the protests, that will set a very bad precedent and give more fuel to those unreasonable people who might object or want “Water” banned when its release date nears.
Thanks, Robin! My only defence is that the IHT got it wrong and I followed suit. Catholic Social Forum just made more sense 🙂
Maybe these religious “fatwas” are publicity stunts. You know what they say: “any publicity is good publicity”. Imagine how many will be flocking like sheep to the temple of fantasies just to see what all the hub bub is about. –Cheap Ass Desi
what exactly is that? google has failed me yet again 🙁
It’s in the post, further down:
Does anyone know if anybody has put out a fatwa on the Bush administration?
I wonder if Mr Almeida is aware of the paradox of attempting to “defend” Jesus by using methods which Jesus himself preached against.
You cannot act in the name of a religion by simultaneously using tactics which violate and contradict the principles of the religion itself.
Exactly!! This sems to be a case of acute “look-at-me-I-“care”-about-my-religion-as-much-as-you-“care”-about-yours”
It’s a bit late for people to start realizing that, no?
Ennis buddy,
It’s never too late for people to realise that 😉
That gave me a chuckle 🙂
Seriously, the above in a short sentence describes what it means to be “secular” in India. Its sad and pathetic.
ennis,
It should be added that non-Catholic denominations (especially Protestants) in India have not called for a ban – this is probably because these denominations allow for individual interpretation of the Bible, whereas Catholics have to follow Rome’s dictat.
Your comparison of Hindu fatwas(Ashok Pandey etc) is misplaced. When a muslim cleric issues a fawta, it comes from a person who is not only religiously literate, but he has a flock of followers/belieivers and actually conducts religious sessions. The Catholic “fatwa” is coming from Cardinals from the Vatican, and carried out by clergy in India who conduct Sunday morning sermons to the faithful. These fatwa-issuers conduct rituals like marriage, house-warming etc etc.
However, the Hindus who issue fatwas against MFHussain are not religiously literate. They have no religious backing, and no Hindu would have them conduct a marriage or any other ceremony. Usually they are demagogues who are out to capitalise on a political issue. These same people would quickly jump into other hot-button issues like caste/language/region etc to divide people. At best, they are opportunists with a short attention span. They are by-and-large, barking dogs. Harmless, for the most part.
The former “fatwa” group, however, is very dangerous. Seccessionary movements are started by such people. It’s a pity that the “Secular” press and polity ignores the infractions of those people who are more inimical, but jumps on the bandwagon to punish the Hindu underdog.
M. Nam
It is an Abrahamic conspiracy to grind the face of tolerant Hindu race into the earth and humiliate us. For too long have we been raped under-doggy style. It is so unfair, I want to scream and scream and scream. Abrahamics stop raping us! We are very tolerant and have a 30 million year civilisation. Hail Mogambo!
But their money is as good as anybody else’s right? Besides which, you can’t claim that nobody listens to the people who are opposed to Husain given that his house and two galleries were attacked in the past and people were injured. Even if this latest group is some freelance nobody’s, they’re agreeing with the Bajrang Dal and Shiv Sena who do have plenty of followers.
So Ennis, you are comparing Bajarang Dal to Vatican?? (Assuming that MoorNam’s assertion that ban on DaVinci code ca me from the Vatican) Bajarang Dal is an overtly political institution. Vatican is not. (Atleast it claims not to be so)
Mwahahahaha.
(wipes away tear..)
MoorNam,
Hold on a minute. Are you saying that the “fatwa” in India is a result of “instructions” from the Vatican itself ? Because as far as I know, the Vatican has made no public declaration of a “dead or alive” price on Dan Brown’s head.
Jai,
The Cardinals have not asked for a ban, but a boycott. They’ve also alleged that it’s an assault on Catholic Christianity. Their Indian cohorts have merely carried it one step further.
Ennis,
Sure – demagogues have followers. Even if a person has twenty followers, it’s enough to attack a man’s house/possessions. However, my point is that they have no religious sanction. No Hindu priest or Vedic philosopher worth a dime has come forward to ask for a ban on Water or MFHussain. On the contrary, this particular ban is being demanded by Catholic clergy. Hence the potential for more damage.
M. Nam
MoorNam,
…..Which means that they’re acting on their own initiative, and do not necessarily have the approval of the Vatican.
Ah Moornam my friend, you just read what you want to see…
We must stop the Vatican rape of under dog Hindu civilisation. Don’t they know that we are the most tolerant and all of the alleged intolerance of Hindus is not intolerance but merely a conspiracy by dastardly Abrahamics to make us look intolerant? Name me one intolerant thing that a Hindu has ever done ever in the history of or 75 million squillion year civilisation and I will show you an Abrahamic so called secular conspiracy to defame us and rape us. Hail Mogambo!
SpoorLam, you’re a genius.
Those Abrahamics need to be put into their place.
(And 75 million squillion is a lot of tradition!)
Devil’s Avocado
Are you mocking me? Don’t use your crafty Abrahamic sarcasm on my poor under dog soul.
For 92 squillion billion years Hindus have been meditating on lotus flowers and being tolerant.
We’ve been raped ever since the Abrahamics destroyed our saffron paradise and ended tolerance. I am in pain and have lot’s of grievance as I can feel the metaphorical pain of that rape in my ass. That’s why I can’t walk straight. Just another grievance that I can add to the list of Hindu grievance.
No Hindu did anything intolerant ever, never ever never. No siree, never.
Bajrang Dal is ancient Vedic version of girl scouts. Anyone who says otherwise is shitting in the mouth of Hindus, and we are tolerant of all things except Abrahamic shit in our mouth, as well as rape of our tolerant civilisation. Da Vinci code proves Abrahamics are the most intolerant and we are not incapable of intolerance, unless provoked by Abrahamics.
Hail Mogambo!
Spoorlam Viswanathan writes:
Hail Mogambo! The similiarity of style is eerie.
M. Nam
I will add that website to the long list of Hindu grievance, which is long because our rape at the hands of salivating Abrahamics has been long, but it has not been as long as our 99 trillion history of tolerance.
Hail Mogambo!
You cannot act in the name of a religion by simultaneously using tactics which violate and contradict the principles of the religion itself.
Sure you can. It is probably one of the most common tactics in the history of our species. And there is no point pointing out the contradictions to those who do so either – they are not willing to accept anyone else’s interpretations. Consider the destruction of Babri Masjid – the law of the land was broken in the name of someone who is defined as Maryada Purushottam.
People shouldn’t do so, yes, but they can and they do. 🙂
Again, it’s a prime example of the slippery slope one finds oneself on when a system is based on such a fundamentally flawed principle as censorship.
It’s also interesting how multimedia giant Sony’s The Da Vinci Code seems to have made it past the Censor Board, the petitions, the threat of hunger strikes and yet, fanatics have successfully destroyed the film from a smaller Indian studio, Tickle My Funny Bone.
Even after being heavily censored, having scenes deleted, it’s name changed (originally entitled The Naughty Nun, jokes removed and an entire song cut out, protestors managed to get the film censored to the point where there are absolutely no religious references at all.
Now, what’s the point of that? The story is about how a novice nun falls in love and tries to leave the convent! They’ve removed all scenes with churches, holy symbols, and nuns!
Read more about the idiocy in this article on the entire sordid affair that is the Tickle My Funny Bone saga.