"The veil has long been part of local culture and nobody is allowed to make fun of these values." Sharia Alert. From AFP:
ISLAMABAD (AFP) - Pakistani authorities have banned a stage play for ridiculing the burqa, the veil traditionally worn by Muslim women, a minister said after Islamist MPs raised the issue in parliament Thursday.
"The veil has long been part of local culture and nobody is allowed to make fun of these values," Minister for Culture Ghazi Gulab Jamal said.
The satirical play Burqa Vaganza was staged this month by Ajoka Theatre at the Arts Council in the eastern city of Lahore, known as the country's cultural capital.
Islamist women lawmakers raised the issue in the lower house, saying that the play was against the "Koranic injunctions on the veil."
The minister told the house that the government had banned the play and "stopped (its) staging it in other cities," following the end of its run in Lahore.
"We do not like that someone should ridicule our cultural values. Burqa is very much part of our culture," Jamal said.
The theatre's owner, Madiha Gohar, condemned the ban, saying that giving in to the Islamists' demands "negates the government's policy of enlightened moderation."
"We are trying to end the evils from the society, we are against forcing women to wear burqa. I condemn the ban," she said.
Gohar said the theme of the play reflected the aggressive behaviour of the burqa-clad female students of Jamia Hafsa school in Islamabad's Red Mosque.
This report from Reuters adds:
Predictably, religious conservative Pakistanis did not find it funny, going as far as to describe the play as blasphemous, a crime in Pakistan that can carry a death sentence.
"They have committed blasphemy against the Prophet (Mohammad)," Razia Aziz, a female lawmaker from the Islamist opposition alliance, told the National Assembly.
She demanded the government take action against people responsible for staging "Burqavaganza".
"the play as blasphemous, a crime in Pakistan that can carry a death sentence"
A death sentence? Over a play? Of course!
Welcome to the world of the Muslim mindset, where silly things are worthy of death, and important matters like men raping women/children (or worse) receive a slap on the wrist. Where up is down, and right is wrong.
Islamland = where nothing makes sense!
I suppose Madiha Gohar ( the owner of the theatre ) should just be thankful that she has not been MURDERED ( yet! ) Or maybe the loonies will be content with just burning the place to the ground while shouting "Allahu Akhbar!"
Pakistan the country where the inmates are in charge and the sane people have been locked up a seventh century country who unfortunately has 21st century nuclear weaponsjust like a guy that wants to have a big bomb in London it would appear these 7th-century people do not recognize how much damage a nuke can doand the burqa is ridiculous
"We are trying to end the evils from the society, we are against forcing women to wear burqa. I condemn the ban," she said.
Typical uppity woman, needs a good slap! Or even a good dose of genital mutilation to keep her in her place.
Islamist women lawmakers raised the issue in the lower house, saying that the play was against the "Koranic injunctions" on the veil.
They have it right! See what happen when you have your clitoris removed with a blunt knife?
Behead those who insult islam. Destroy those who insult the prophet.
These people cannot take a joke. No humour, no music, no laughter, no fun, no light, no life. Only death.
The power of the radicals comes from Islam, from their ability to accuse people of not being good enough Muslims. Is it any surprise that they would react strongly at ridicule which would threaten the foundation of their power?
The moderates cannot hold off the radicals forever. There is no passion to moderation, no willingness to kill to get their way
Yeats said it best:
There can be no balance between moderate and fanatic, and so it is useless to look to the "moderates" to calm things down
"These people cannot take a joke. No humour, no music, no laughter, no fun, no light, no life. Only death."
Too right, mate.
Intend to keep my humor and take the piss on these people and their whinging and their backwards ideas.
Someone should present "Burqa Vaganza--the Musical" on the West End.
Metal detectors and bomb-sniffing dogs at all entrances!
"These people cannot take a joke. No humour, no music, no laughter, no fun, no light, no life. Only death."
Too right, mate.
Intend to keep my humor and take the piss on these people and their whinging and their backwards ideas.
Someone should present "Burqa Vaganza--the Musical" on the West End.
Metal detectors and bomb-sniffing dogs at all entrances!
All this because a pedophile pointed at a woman's face and hands.
If this idiot had been kicked by a healthy camel, Arabian women would still be going topless to this day.
And Muslims like this clown?
"Burqas Gone Bananas".
Not only do most Muslims not have a sense of humor, most also lack a sense of self-criticism. Opposition to this play demonstrates my point. The lack of humor, self-criticism and lack of self-responsibility (the inshallah factor) is why the clash of civilizations will continue as more Muslims move to the West. I might add that many Muslims seem very short on true compassion, mercy and peace, no matter how many times it is mouthed in public forums.
Will Burqavaganza have a run in theaters in New York and London?
Burqa-Be-Gone -- order on line!
You can order my new "Burqa-Be-Gone" kit on line for only $9.99 (not available in stores). Simply go to:
www.burqabegone.com
(kit contains: matches and lighter fluid -- not suitable for children)
There is no passion to moderation, no willingness to kill to get their way.
This is, in a nutshell, the salient point in understanding evil in the world, or more specifically, why evil seems to prevail.
Moderation has no passion, so it lacks the force, and subsequentely the success, inherent in extremism. In the world, and the Third World especially, only the radicals, those with strong ideals, are willing to kill. Those who are decent human beings, are by definition, not willing to take lives to advance an ideal. So evil always has the upper hand in the dealings of men. Since islam is an absolutist doctrine, it finds within it, within its members, the passion lacking in moderate doctrines. So islam is therefore perpetually on the offensive. It was written that way.
Good people, and by good people, I mean people not infused with such ideals, also have much more inertia than bad people. Bad people are easily motivated. They need little prodding. Strong ideals motivate them. Good people, being comfortable, with far less passion, have great inertia. When at rest, they tend to stay at rest. Thus the axiom that, for evil to succeed, all it takes is for good men to do nothing, is one of the truest axioms ever recorded.
Most members of the western middle class are not willing to kill for religion or ideology
A great many of us are willing to kill to prevent bad things from happening to our families. When the threshold has been crossed where we feal that our families are in danger, the result might be something the jihadists were not expecting
A great many of us are willing to kill to prevent bad things from happening to our families.
Ah, but by then, it is too late. Good people must be willing to kill for the ideology of freedom and all the values of our western society, for our culture, and for our collective history. For that is worth killing for.
Sixty years ago we killed millions in that cause. Today, I fear we have lost that stomach for war far away from our shores. If we wait until the war comes to us, to our homes, to our families, before we put up a defence, it will be too late.
What the Third World has in its favor, is not only passion, something we lack, but it has poor living conditions. That makes people restless, angry. That exacerbates the passion, the energy. The First World is comfortable, well-fed, dumb and happy. That makes us lethargic, not just physically, but politically. That is why millions of Americans can't be bothered to march in the streets and chant, "Death to Osama" or "Behead those that insult Christianity". We lack the passion. We have so many other distractions and demands on our energies and time, that islamic terrorism is no more than a news curiousity. For the Third World, hating and plotting against the West is not a curiosity, but a way of life, the central focus of their existence. There again, advantage: Enemy.
If we wait until the jihadists come into our homes and businesses to kill and rape us, before we get some passion, then we are acting only for personal reasons, which means it will be uncoordinated and far too late. That is what Sweden and Europe will find themselves doing in 25 years. We can't go that route. We need to act as a civilization, as we once did, for national and cultural reasons, and we need to act now.
Passion need not be the sole providence of the absolutists. It is about time we in the West became passionate about ourselves and discover that we, too, have a cause.