We’re talking about Islam and religion. Click before we kenna the Sedition Act!

By Joey Tan

Benetton's poster showing Pope Benedict XVI kissing Ahmed el Tayyeb, imam of the Al-Azhar Mosque in Cairo

Unless you’re like me, living under the information floods from the eurozone and the U.S. for the past week, you’re probably familiar with the Jason Neo case.

Recap: The young PAP member posted a picture of muslim kindergarden children in a bus and put up the caption: Bus filled with young terrorist trainees? The dick has since apologized and the young PAP exco have gone full out for damage control. 

An occasional friend of this publication, fellow blogger Donaldson Tan of New Asia Republic was also caught in a recent fiasco. He re-posted a photoshopped picture of a dog on top a Kaaba, a black cube thingy in Mecca that’s the Muslim equivalent of the centre of the Vatican city.

From The Online Citizen

Donaldson said he posted the trollbait up to warn others that it was… trollbait.

It’s no coincidence that most of the high profile cases revolving around religious sensitivities have involved Muslims. And unless you’re deluded from the overwhelming pressure to be politically correct, you may well come to the conclusion that it’s really Muslims that need to take a chill pill.

After all, why should the rest of the world tread on eggshells over Islam when people take potshots at Jesus, Yahweh, Buddha and the 100001 Hindu gods everyday. And don’t get me started on the official anti-Dalai Lama stance that China’s taken.

haha?

One poster on Donaldson’s Wall, like many others around the world, obviously got pissed off at this double standard.

Here’s one of her comments in all its full glory:

“Make one f*cking comment about Islam or Allah and the whole Muslim ___ (TOC cleverly blurred out this word, can’t see it) crew come out with stones and sticks. Do you see Christians do that? (Somehow TOC blurred this line too) That’s what the rest of the world are sick of – publish one cartoon, get bombed. Other people have kids and families too, just because they disagree with your religion doesn’t give you the right to threaten them. Just f*cking bullies. Your God will judge you in hell”

So is she right that there a double standard when it comes to discussions about Islam and/or Muslims?

YES. Here’s why.

1) Mainstream public opinion has been largely against Islam.

An American poll this year found that the overall view of Islam in the United States has worsened over the past 5 years. The same survey also showed that more than half of Muslim Americans polled felt that anti-terrorist policies were targeted against them.

There’s no equivalent of that poll in Singapore but it’s safe to say that the mainstream view of Islam doesn’t rank near the Easter Bunny on the cuddly scale.

Ask anyone at the supermarket about the top 3 things that flash through their mind when they think about Muslims. Chances are that they will be

1) 9/11,

2) No pork,

3) Tudungs,

in no particular order. Ask the older generation and they might even tell you about the 1965 racial riots. Ask Lee Kuan Yew and he’ll probably bitch to you about hostile Muslim neighbors.

2) The mainstream media hasn’t been fair to Islam

Flip open the papers and you’ll see: Oh, another Muslim country fighting again. Oh no, Iran’s receiving sanctions and on the home page, maybe some patronizing article about Malay students improving in their PSLE scores but still lagging behind their Chinese counterparts.

Yes, Malays and Muslims are synonymous in the mainstream eye and you can blame mainstream reporting for conflating race and religion.

And speaking about double standards, how many news pieces each day report about some sh*t happening in some Muslim country? And how many pieces do the equivalent of the great Christian nation of the United States of America?

Of course, at this point, you might be tempted to say: Oh, that’s because Christian nations do no harm. Bullsh*t – go read Al Jazeera.

3) Anyone that faces a barrage of negativity about his/her religion everyday tends to get defensive about it.

Seriously, if I was told on a daily basis that my religion pretty much sucked and was the sole and only cause of terrorism, I’d be pretty damn touchy too.

Because it’s not true.

Added to that insult is the overwhelming lack of knowledge the public has about the religion.

For example: Did you know that the word “Islam” literally translates into “Peace”? And only the Southeast Asian variant of the religion is terribly enthusiastic about polygamy?

Probably not. Because it’s not something you come across as pervasively as, say, Christian imagery in movies.

Heck, if Hollywood had a Muslim version of Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, we’d all be a lot more educated than we are now.

And this is why we’ve come to today’s very sad state of affairs when Islam by far, is a touchier religion to talk about than others.

Search Engine Bias? - what you get when you search "Muslim". Not very cuddly.

Search engine bias? - what you get when you search "Christian" in Google. Nice fuzzy warm stuff