Hmm. This subject is not strictly religious (and it should not be) but pertains to its relationship with the human pysche. To explain this, I got the following e-mail a few days back.
***Subject: Jesus had it coming… **
this Jesus guy..
engaged in property theft by cursing a fig tree, resulting in the loss of corporate profits.
disrupted market activities by attacking financiers engaged in lawful currency transactions.
stirred up class warfare among the poor.
stole intellectual property, by preaching a gospel that he didn’t copyright.
subverted the capitalistic virtues of private property by advising people to give away possesions.
If he were doing this kind of stuff today, our conservative leaders would make sure he were properly punished. Three strikes and you’re out, Jesus!*
Now everyone knows that Muslims hold Jesus with great respect and revere him. But would it be a reflection of the status of individual muslim’s belief if they took the above as a straight insult? My first reacton was that I found the style of this amusing. I wasn’t really bothered about the subject matter. To me it was just funny. I knew that this piece was meant solely to be satirical and I would not see any point in a some true believer getting insulted by it. Why would they be? My view is that no honestly held belief is ever threatened by satire. Challenged, perhaps, but never threatened. But would you feel, as a muslim, that your belief was being undermined by such a jokey remark? Would you feel threatened? I’m curious.
Maybe it’s a reflection on how some aspects of our culture and upbringing have an effect upon religion practise. When I went to Pakistan some years back, I visited some families in the district. They have many young children and all have very comfortable surroundings and good loving parents. But it is strange. They hardly laugh. Especially the boys. They look at you with the seriousness of little monks. When the boy is about a few years old (like about six) his dad begins to take him with him on frequent trips. The mosque. The bazaar. Visiting dad’s friends. I noticed that these kids do that a lot with their parents. More often than not, the parents and their friends tend to be quite serious looking. And when the child moves in the company of adults his serious face gets set. Playful activity from parents to kids tends to be more unusual than ususal and so the kids treat it as such. And introducing religion to these kids tends to be done in a serious manner and in a non-intuitive and impersonal way. Does this kind of environment affect later emotional development? Especially with regard to religious practise? Maybe it does a lot. More than some realise. It’s plausible.
Dost , You have an interesting point. Christianity and Christians as a whole are very robust and can take satire, review and criticism quite nicely. Considering that analysis and critique is not considered to be malicious or derogatory. Sorry to say , but Islam and muslims in general are very touchy. Am I wrong???
We (Muslim) are quite sensitive where religion is concern. This humor in religion… people sometimes take it too far and at the end of the day the real message disappear.
Take for example “Jesus is Gay”. Is it necessary to ridicule and poke fun on him? Because he wasn’t married? Pleasing the Gay community???
Tanhaa. You are not wrong. I think even with a generalisation like that (all generalisations are unfair - even that one), you are not far off the mark regarding Muslims. It certainly is a facet of cultural conditioning and you're correct to say that muslims tend to be more hyped up and sensitive about this. My theory? Firstly, it may be the consequence to a degree of the relative seperation of state and church in such places. That wouldn't explain everything but it is a good starting point. Which would lead into my second point. I think the over-sensitivity of some groups of Muslims is a reflection of their blind faith in their religion (whatever they may construe it as). Too many groups of Muslims have trouble distinguishing between simple concepts here. Which links in nicely to babydoll's point.
[quote] Orginally posted by babydoll:
Take for example "Jesus is Gay". Is it necessary to ridicule and poke fun on him? Because he wasn't married? Pleasing the Gay community???
[/quote]
Babydoll. I'm sure Muslims would not have any problem refuting that claim regarding Jesus. But to refute requires being intellectually honest about it in the first place. Intellectual honesty leads to scholarly and intelligent responses. Blind faith leads directly into hurling insults. And my point here is that blind faith is a symptom of the type of cultural conditoning and upbringing. The inability to recognise the difference between satire and insult is the hallmark of blind faith. And that is exactly what "touchy" muslims need to be able to distinguish clearly in your cited statement. You could easily respond to them by saying the following: If your beliefs are so weak that you don't feel they can stand up to satire then I suggest that you re-examine them. Simple.
I agree with you Renaissance bhai, The more blind faith, and fanatic atitude in religious matters, the more touchy people usually are.
I remember in my college days in India, we would look at the statues of godesses and comment, How sexy they were. Most of my Hindu friends would go along and discuss the anatomy and what the artist was thinking of when he was making them. Whereas, we had one friend who would be quite irritated at our irreverent behaviour. And we were a nice group of Hindus Muslims and Christians.
Of course statues of Mary were included in the discussion. Muslims were save in the discussion because they had no statues. And in the end we all concluded that the muslims did the smart thing to avoid this kind of rude behaviour.
[This message has been edited by Tanhaa (edited July 22, 2001).]
[quote]
Originally posted by Tanhaa: Dost , You have an interesting point. Christianity and Christians as a whole are very robust and can take satire, review and criticism quite nicely.
[/quote]
Then again, most so-called christians do not really practise their faith - it becomes something done at most once a week and which is merely an identifier for them. The vast majority of my Christian friends do not really practise their faith at all. Most muslims take their religion more seriously than christians, and hence get very much annoyed at such humour cast at their faith.
To put it another way, consider the situation 400 years ago when Christians were much more serious about their faith. Were you to say "Jesus is gay", even in jest, you would be likely to find yourself reported to the local inquisitor and tied to a burning stake very rapidly..........
At the end of the day, those who accept humour regarding their religious beliefs are generally those who do not take those beliefs seriously.
At the end of the day, those who accept humour regarding their religious beliefs are generally those who do not take those beliefs seriously.
[/quote]
My problem here may be a bit of redundancy and circularity; to me an honestly held belief is one either subject to change based upon new evidence or one admitted by its holder to be without a persuasive basis. In this sense "honest" indicates an acknowledgement of the possibility of error - pretty much the opposite of certitude. I'm using the word "honest" to mean intellecually honest. Absolute certainty isn't honest - it's delusional outside the realm of mathematics. And absolute certainty without due regard for the bases upon which the argument rests is even more delusional. It's blind faith.
So I strongly believe that the person whose beliefs are kept in the conditional category of the brain is not as sensitive to satire of those beliefs.