Malaysians Say The Darndest Things!

Did RPK Insult Prophet Muhammad?

August 31, 2008

I love how politicians love justifying their actions. In Malaysia, it’s even more interesting because you don’t have to wait long before something stupid spills out from a politician’s mouth.

Recently, with the banning of Malaysia Today, which can still be accessed at their mirror site at http://mt.harapanmalaysia.com/, we have heard politicians coming out with their viewpoints on the banning.

Expectedly, you have the Home Minister, Syed Hamid Albar defending the actions by the MCMC. On a side note, Syed Hamid Albar has been consistently defending police actions like roadblocks, including most of all the government’s oppression of the freedom of speech. Here is what our Home Minister has to say:

In Kajang, Home Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar claimed that the Malaysia Today news portal had no respect at all for religion even though the topic is very sensitive and the “fire of religion” could cause chaos and havoc. (Klaw: The Bar Council met with such resistance from “Muslim NGOs” in such a short amount of time for ‘interfering in Islam’. Inverted commas for Muslim NGOs because GPMS is not one. Where is the Muslim NGO resistance to RPK? And why hasn’t it caused chaos and havoc yet?)

Earlier this week, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (SKMM) said it was blocking access to the Malaysia Today website under Section 263 of the Act.

Energy Water and Communications Minister Datuk Shaziman Abu Mansor and Syed Hamid said the government did not instruct SKMM to do so. (Klaw: Right…)

However, Utusan Malaysia reported on Saturday that SKMM had banned Malaysia Today not for political reasons or because it was very critical of politicians , but because the website had insulted Prophet Muhammad. (Klaw: As usual, talk only, no proof.)

Syed Hamid said countries take action when people profane religion, “what more from a person (Raja Petra) who professes to be a Muslim.” He was speaking to reporters yesterday after attending the Merdeka celebrations at the Kajang Prison.

My question would be, if RPK had indeed insulted the prophet, then why is it that the portal still has a sizable number of readers who are Muslim? And if he did in fact insult the prophet, wouldn’t the PAS leadership has lambasted his blog as well? I mean, come on, if you’re talking about upholding Islamic honor or something, would you expect PAS or BN/UMNO to be doing it?

From my readings of RPK’s pieces (and I read nearly all of them), he has consistently based his arguments on many of the Prophet’s actions. Basically instead of “What would Jesus do”, it’s “What would Prophet Muhammad do”.  I am no Muslim, but paying homage to the prophet is certainly not called “insulting the Prophet”. But you know, it’s Utusan Malaysia speaking. In fact, I have the feeling that UMNO actually stands for Utusan Malaysia News Organization.

So what’s next? Syed Hamid swearing on the Quran that RPK did indeed insult the prophet? Then challenging RPK to swear on the Quran stating that he did not insult the prophet? I don’t know about you, but all this swearing on the Quran business is quite immature and childish. It’s like a said earlier, if a person does not even fear god, then he can swear on any holy book and not care about retribution. So swearing on the Quran should mean jacksquat. Unfortunately, many people do not share this belief of mine.

On that note, RPK has just posted his reply to Syed Hamid Albar. Read his response here: Nothing but a Red Herring

You Might Find These Interesting

• Syed Hamid Introduces A Unique Way To Seek Protection
• Stopping Anwar Ibrahim In Permatang Pauh: #2: The Saiful Bukhari Factor
• UMNO Respects Other Component Parties? April Fool’s Was Last Week
• BN Election Slogan: It’s A Personal Matter
• Do We Really Need A Non-Muslim Affairs Department?

Thank you for reading Malaysians Say The Darndest Things! If you like what you just read, you should consider subscribing to this blog in a feedreader. Alternatively, you could also subscribe via email, and you will get a daily digest of the day's posts. Your email is strictly protected and will never be used for spam or marketing purposes.