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Tuesday, December 20, 2005

Who says Indian Muslims don't oppose MF Husain's paintings: Enough of this anti-Muslim bias, false propaganda

The photograph on the left shows Muslims opposing MF Husain, the celebrity painter, for his controversial paintings that outraged a section of Hindus.

I am not an artist. Creative art and boundaries of artistic freedom is quite a big issue and needs a bigger space.

What I know is that Muslims are targeted just because MF Husain happens to be a Muslim. So what should I do?

For every wrongdoing or crime by a Muslim, shall I go to street and protest.

And by the same yardstick, for every crime by a Hindu, Hindus should hold demonstrations and say 'We condemn it'. This is all bullshit. Law must prevail.

Already he has cases registered against him in police stations and would be arrested if he comes to India. Many Hindus support his right to draw Saraswati and Bharat Mata. I am opposed to it. Hasn't he apologised?

The Saffron brigade that loves Salman Rushdie, is not satisfied and wants more. The problem is even when Muslims take to streets, openly opposing Husain, media doesn't report it. The photo here shows Muslims holding a banner against the painter and also holding footwear that carry the painter's picture.

Now, still, you claim that Muslims don't oppose the paintings! First, the TV Channels and newspapers don't print these photos and don't send reporters to cover these protests. Then, they claim that Muslims don't hold events. Damn it.

The following story http://in.rediff.com/news/2005/dec/16rajeev.htm appeared on the homepage of Rediff a few days back and still features in the homeapage. I am apalled and wonder what is the limit of free speech?

How can such things that are so ridiculous and aimed at poisoning minds besides creating rifts in Indian society be featured prominently? Not Togadia or Shahabuddin who are known rabblerousers, it is people like these who feature such articles need to be condemned. 

Three or four instances that fit in your ideological angle are collected and a web of lies is spun to cast aspersions. Everyone is shaken by such deaths but portraying them and seeing them in terms of Hindu, Muslim, Christian is criminal.

I am a Muslim so am I not a human? I may ask what is the value of Muslim's life during riots and carnages like Gujarat. The eye for eye case was shown on television channels again and again [of course to show the era Saudis think they live in] and the pressure mounted on government.

Rubia was Home Minister's daughter and had it been the daughter of Karan Singh it would have been the same case. In my humble opinion, if there is a big event small news stories do not get mentioned but when there is no such news, a story like eye-for-eye gets more prominence but not the death in Afghanistan.

Is it not electronic print media and the circumstances like that of Sarabjeet Singh which was taken up by the entire media as a cause but never in the past the issue of hundreds of Indians languishing in jails became a national debate.

One does not expect an opinion-maker website like Rediff.com to carry such a poor piece.