Malaysia suspends another newspaper over cartoons

Cartoon Rage, and the assault on freedom of speech, continues. From AFP, with thanks to Sr. Soph:

KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysia has suspended the operations of another Chinese-language newspaper for publishing one of the controversial cartoons that have sparked global protests.

Publication of the Berita Petang Sarawak, a newspaper in the eastern states of Sarawak, Sabah and neighbouring Brunei, has been suspended for two weeks, the Internal Security Ministry said in a statement late Saturday.

It said the two-week suspension was effective from Sunday until March 11.

“The decision was made after Berita Petang Sarawak published an article: “We are prepared for the jihad war’, on February 4, which contained the caricature,” the ministry said....

Earlier this month the government suspended the Chinese-language Guangming Daily for two weeks for publishing a photograph of a person reading a newspaper carrying one of the cartoons.

It also shut down indefinitely the operations of The Sarawak Tribune, believed to be the first newspaper in the world to be closed for publishing the drawings, which have sparked a wave of protests that have left some two-dozen people dead.

But the official New Straits Times, which published a cartoon parodying the controversy over caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed, escaped punishment after it issued a front page apology....

The Bangkok-based Southeast Asian Press Alliance said on Friday that the amount of government interference in the Malaysian media, particularly of late, was an indication of the country’s declining standards of democracy.

The government has no place interfering with the press and upsetting this system of checks and balances,” it said in a statement.

| 4 Comments
Print this entry | Email this entry | Digg this | del.icio.us |

4 Comments


Over the years Christians have been horrified at the movies and books written against Christianity. The film on Jesus being a homosexual was particularly horrifying for Christians, the outcry was great, and of course even though it was distressing to a massive part of the population, under the guise of freedom of the press, they were allowed to publish the film, and the books. However, it seems totally different for Islam, our governments have already turned tummy side up to Islam and islam has succeeded in controlling the press and the governments of the world. A few cartoons and a mass of bullying and the government bows down on the ground.
History has shown their potential, and even Sir Winston Churchill spoke of the dangers of Islam.
It is no wonder that the problem with islam gets bigger by the minute, they have learnt that being a bully works like clock work, and the world caves in without a fight...
Muhammad started the same way, he raiding a caravan, looting and slaughtering, no one did anything, and so he raided more and no one did anything, he then raided villages and still no one did anything, all the time his boldness and numbers grew, so then he raided countries, torturing and slaughtering as he went.. now this religion of war has realised its potential once again, and their radical numbers grow daily. We are now past the slaughter of villages, thanks to the our governments being cowards, and thanks to the money we pour into their country through oil and handouts, ... Mohammad knew that by being a religion it would give him more kudos. By preaching that they were being oppressed, it would give him a religious reason for going to war against those who supposedly oppressed his religion. The left (socialism, communism) whole heartedly back islam, perhaps the left think that once Islam has done its part that they can take over from there, their aims are almost exactly alike, even to the total control, the only difference is that one says it is a religion, to the moon god called Allah, who was the god of agriculture, the SWORD and WAR????. which gives them a persona of respectability and thus protection.

This morning on "This Week with George Stephanopoulos" on ABC, the question was asked -- do the recent violent outbursts in Iraq, the victory of Hamas, the riots across the Muslim world -- hamper the image of Muslims -- and make "deals" like the UAE port embroglio inevitable -- Mr. Fareed Zacharia, like so many other Muslims and Arabs, maintained that "sectarian violence" isn't limited to any single culture or civilization -- he then cited mayhem in Indonesia, Malaysia, and India as examples of this reality -- I almost fell off my chair -- and was stunned when no one challenged his characterization -- he was attempting (as the Muslims and Arabs always can be relied on to do) to deflect the attention away from Arab culture, and especially Islamic culture in the analysis of world terrorism and world mayhem. What he failed to mention was the FACT that Muslims in those three countries, predominant in Malaysia and Indonesia, and malignantly present in India, are responsible for much of the horror and mayhem -- Like all Muslims -w hat a hypocrite and a dissembler.

Now we see a story such as this -- and remembering the execrable words of the retiring and notorious anti-Semite Islamist President Mahathir Mohamad of Malaysia -- this Islamic inspired suspension of the Press comes as no surprise. The vile Muslim pig, Mahathir Mohamad was recently in Egypt holding an Islamic "world" court hearing -- He and his Arab Muslim brethren were holding a mock trial of George Bush and the American Administration - the charge? "Crimes against humanity." What vile filth coming from the hypocritical Muslims -- the worst serial abusers of humankind in history... They and their vile filth stained religion are a blight, a cancer, a disease which hampers and harms all human kind. As the vectors for the disease of Islam, we must develop quarantine methods to contain and shrink this menacing infection which is infesting the West... Limit Muslims to their hell hole of origin -- let them wallow in the horrors of Islam which they have embraced -- let them NOT continue to bring this filthy infection of Islam to our shores -- the consequences will be HORRIFIC for all if we don't stop them now.

jsla-

Do I take it you oppose Islam?

I, too, saw the Stephanopolis silliness... with everyone on the program as uniform in their one opinion as a Stalin purge-trial's hand-picked judges, all spouting the "Islamophobia is the problem/the UAE are just folks" party line.

Not one voice of any kind of dissent.

Did the Saudis buy ABC?

I almost expected to see hooded jihadists, with unsheathed knifes, standing on the shadowy edges of screen, it was so much a concerto of capons, maestro'd by the head apologist F. Zacharia (-his best line: "They [Muslims in India/Pakistan] see it [the opposition to the 'port deal'] as an example of 'us' [xenophobic Americans] being against brown-skinned people...").

I'm sure many brown-skinned, black-skinned, peach-skinned, yellow-skinned and red-skinned Americans are insulted by this racist canard.

I was spitting out the phrases as the screen:

It's the Koran, stupid!

It's the jihad, jackass!

ABC (Allah's Best Castratos).

Profitsbeard:

Your perspicacity is amazing -- -- however did you divine from what I write here that I'm not a fan of Islam?

That "brown skinned" comment of Zacharia was utterly revolting, as was the entire broadcast.

The groundswell of rejection for this "port deal" shows once again that the unwashed democratic American masses are far better at determining what is right and what is wrong than their elite media and polical "superiors" are ... There's no unhealthy xenophobia in the popular suspicion and revulsion to this "deal". And the reaction isn't based on sheer bigotry either. It's simply common sense... and it's highly ironic that these arch demogogues on ABC and elsewhere label the popular reaction as demagogic -- they're the ones, so practiced in such prevarications, who are the real demagogues...

I hope this topic stays front and center for some time -- and that the talented handlers aren't successful at manipulating away. The fact that the President has joined the other moral relativists, Muslim apologists, and all out slanderers of America is something that must not be ignored, and must not be forgiven. When McCain, Bush, or media figures allage that American racism is at the root of this issue, they are spitting at the intelligence of the American electorate, slandering a great swath of patriots, and joining with the other America bashing filth who inhabit the planet. They must be repudiated completely.