Sunday, May 23, 2010

Hitchens on Danger to Freedom From Islamists

Christopher Hitchens lecture on the dangers to freedom from Islamists at 2010 PEN in New York City. What's interesting about the lecture, and the conservation, following the lecture, with Salman Rushdie, which was about self-censorship, at times without any threat, of western media when it came to Islamic issues - regarding Danish cartoons of prophet Mohammad or regarding recent Comedy Central, a US TV Channel, ban of use of the word Mohammad in its South Park episode - the opposite happened in India when it came to nasty paintings of Hindu Gods by apparent great painter M. F. Husain, who ran away to Qatar instead of standing up for freedom of speech he apparently believes in. In the case of M. F. Husain's paintings, while the illiberal India media wrote silly columns and interviews supporting M. F. Husain's artistic freedom to paint nasty paintings of Hindu Gods, even as they themselves condemned Danish cartoons on prophet Mohammad, they never published the nasty cartoons!! In this case, most Hindus, who thought M. F. Husain was gratuitously offensive to Hindus, wanted the media to publish the cartoons so ordinary Hindus can see the joker the artist M. F. Husain really was. But self-proclaimed liberal Indian media is selective in its outrage and selective in its censorship.
    

1 comment:

  1. It makes me furious each time I am reminded about MF Husain's nasty paintings of Hindu deities. How dare he? Yes, there are many in Indian media who have double standards when it comes to Hinduism.BTW, I am glad this so-called painter has left India for good, I hope.

    Dr Yadu Singh
    Sydney, Australia
    www.yadusingh.wordpress.com
    www.twitter.com/dryadusingh

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