Oh My God

"Common people have as much right to be offended as uncommon people"

Certainly, but the issue is whether they have the right to translate their offended feelings into forceful actions.

Cmon, kaal you know all that. What are you driving at ?

Publius,

I think that the problem may be deeper than that. It is my impression( please correct me if I am wrong Shoaib) that in the case of free speech, the common muslims may actually support blasphemy laws and censorship etc.

See, now the only exposure I have to the "common Muslim" is my own family and a few friends.

From their reference I'd say that most of them couldn't care less what The Statesman prints or whether Muslims are allowed to allowed to marry 4 times or whatever.

You may say that my sample set is too small. I might agree but then I'd say my sample set is bigger than most people's "common Muslim" sample set here, at the very least.

Regards,
Shoaib

vakibs, one doesn't have to make huge contributions to be offended. Common people have as much right to be offended as uncommon people.

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I frankly don't understand what all this 'nice talk' achieves.

Re:#21

Eklayvya,

Looking at it emperically, I'd have to say, in all probabilty, no.

As a wise man once said: "stupid is as stupid does".

Shoaib

Shoaib ..

Your argument to the point ! Very good :-)

I think some great man once said "Nobody becomes great on account of their beliefs, but on account of their actions". We should ask all these defenders of cultural sensibilities what their specific individual contributions to their culture are.

"Their voice becomes the community’s voice because the govt/pol parties only listen to them"

I think that the problem may be deeper than that. It is my impression( please correct me if I am wrong Shoaib) that in the case of free speech, the common muslims may actually support blasphemy laws and censorship etc.

In fact I suspect that some common Hindus may too but not quite in the same percentage and to the same extent.( There is already a built in blasphemy tradition in Hinduism represented by Carvaka etc)

shoaib bhai,

Will/do Muslims themselves protest such arrests anywhere else?

Eklavya,

Yes, I am nice. Of that there is but little doubt.

Incidentally, I hope you realise that this strategy (pseudo-secularism, if you will) followed by many parties in India damns the Muslims.

Ghettoisation is what you can call it. Make the nut-jobs the representative of the community. Their voice becomes the community’s voice because the govt/pol parties only listen to them. Haj offers are accepted in a trice but Muslim areas in Delhi will not have proper water supply.

The sad part is that most Indian Muslims don't realise what's happening hence your very correct observation that nobody even protested.

Regards,
Shoaib

OK bsm I may have misconstrued your meaning. I withdraw those remarks ( as being directed at you)

However since this is a public forum and those ideas were brought up ( for a different intention perhaps) I would still state my views about those( with no implication that you hold those views)

a) The idea that, in the matter of individual rights, different groups *should* act on their own internal norms , whatever those norms may be, is a despicable amoral rationalization of evil.

b)w.r.t free speech and individual rights there is only one norm to be followed. Nobody has the right to violate somebody else's rights. And that is so regardless of what their religion teaches them or fails to teach them.

Shoib, you are a nice person, so one can safely skip your articles.

Having read this one on glowing recommendations, I am going to introduce a tiny bit of poison in here.

Shoiab bhai, when we had the most shocking and absurd case of the Statemsan editors/owners being arrested for reproducing a British article, when recently a guy arrested in Orissa (or was it Bengal, again?) for publishing something insulting to Islam, how many or which Muslim intellectuals (or even Hindus) protested loudly?

I am not in India so I might have missed something.

Shoaib
You are a real good person!!!! Even after being on Chowk for quite sometime now, you still have your innate goodness and a rational mind. Don't lose it. Your country needs people like you.
May you always remain happy!

Shoaib, can you please reproduce your blog post about the Mangalore violence here?

Very nice article full of punch,Can only come from person like shoib

I really liked your article. You made your points really well.
People objecting to everything is not new in India. Unfortunately this round seems to have begun with the Satanic Verses. Since then, it appears to have become a challenge to other Indians, "I can get more offended than you."
There is respecting the sentiments of the public, and then there is a super-sensitive public. I actually think India is too tolerant of these super-sensitive people who form a relative minority, and we as a nation should stop hearing them out.
We are a nation of champion whingers. No one complains enough about the shortage of water and electricity, the bad roads, the poor health and education systems...all the interest is focussed on other people's intellectual property instead.

Shoaib bhai,

Thanks for the correction.

Regards

#10

your quotation aparantly sounds right, though I know not in what context it was said. But it poses a question as well: "did Gandhi ever have balls to bear a Nazi beating?"

I think Nazis couldn't be seduced by Gandhi ji, like Englishmen did, for a Brown sahib-led Independence. So much for an Indian pride, no?
-E