Oversensitive Religion
Blasphemlicious
JoJo’s Bizzare Adventure, an anime series based on a manga by the same name, is currently under fire from the Middle East for having a villain in the show read the Holy Koran while plotting the death of the protagonist.
Rather stupid if you ask me.
[ Source: JapanProbe | Itai-News ]
The original scene in the manga did not show the contain of the book. Since it is unlikely that anyone working on the show can actually read Arabic, someone probably decided to copy and past the text from a randomly-selected online source without knowing that it was an extract from the Koran.
Though it’s not their fault, Shueisha, the publisher of the manga, has posted a public apology of their website in both English and Japanese, with the Japanese version being notably shorter. Personally I wouldn’t apologize for such triviality, especially if the mistake wasn’t even my own, but then again I don’t run a multimillion-dollar company.
Not Terrorists
I just find it absolutely hilarious (in a sad way) that the companies involved have received death threats for supposedly depicting Muslims as terrorists. Sort of like, “How dare you say that our religion is violent? I’ll blow your company up and kill your family!” Oh irony.
This was probably a simple mistake on the part of some anonymous underpaid animator, but even if it weren’t, it’s really no big deal. The fact of the matter is that some Muslims are indeed terrorists, therefore it makes perfect sense to have Muslim terrorists appear in an fictional Arabic setting. I mean, some white folks are serial killers, and we have no problems with casting Caucasian actors as horror movie antagonists. It doesn’t have to be a general statement about an entire community of people, and it often isn’t. I’m pretty sure at least a few anime villains have quoted or alluded to the Bible before.
If anything, the tendency to over-react in such situations does more to reinforce the violent stereotype of Islam than anything else. The same with most angry protests really. As much as I may (or may not) sympathize with their cause, watching people burn effigies (whether it be Bush, Osama or Dalai Lama) and scream their lungs out simply extinguishes any desire on my part to be associated with what they stand for.
Relativism
Frankly, I think in our blind pursue of political correctness, we often overlook just how frightening extremism and radicalism in religion can be. When someone incurs the wrath of radical Islam, we are quick to denounce him as “culturally insensitive” or “ethnocentric”, among other convenient labels, placing all the blame squarely on the often unwitting offender. It’s a reverse knee-jerk reaction.
Few people pause to consider the flip side of the coin, for it seems almost a given that once religions are criticized (unfairly or not), it becomes perfectly acceptable for the believers to do whatever they fancy in seeking “justice”. And if the offender-turn-victim happens to have his life taken from him in the process, he can look forward to many a posthumous “serves you right” lecturing from his supposedly more worldly peers. (Assuming afterlife does exist.)
I find this quite a sad state of affairs, but I guess that describes the entirety of the human condition since 200,000 years ago. (2.5 million if you consider the entire homo genus as humans. Or 6,000 if you swing that way.)
P.S. Marina is Jewish.
May 30th, 2008 at 1:45 am
God claims many things. A lot of them contradictory. This is why there are so many different interpretations of the word “christian”.
Counterquote!
Ultimately it doesnt matter what the man believed. The fact remains that whatever his personal beliefs and motivations, he convinced people to follow him partly with the help of religion. Christianity was partly and directly responsible for WWII.
Which has nothing at all to do with what i said.
May 30th, 2008 at 1:20 pm
WTF drama here. Nothing is as bad as Narnia, that’s for sure. Fuck you Narnia!
May 30th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
Then deal in facts. Show me some contradictions and find some acclaimed historians who will support your frankly insane claim that hitler was a christian. Further: your quote is from 1922 when he sought power, mine from 1941 when he had it and was afraid to lose it; thus he turned on his enemies. I can provide quotes to prove him an atheist, will that make your day?
“Which has nothing at all to do with what i said.”
It has everything to do. Read again.
May 30th, 2008 at 7:07 pm
How people perceive god is irrelevant next to the fact that they all consider him omnipotent. By definition there can only be one such being. Awaiting your rebut.
And again,
Got anything to say to that?
May 31st, 2008 at 2:11 am
Going to the original argument, I believe there to be fault on both sides, the anime’s staff should know that to display a religious text in a wrongful manner is blatantly inflammatory and is very distasteful.
On the otherhand, the reaction to it should’ve been proper protest. More likely than not, its the result of a misunderstanding, and as to our host, DarkMirage’s inclusion that (ok, I’m assuming here that Marina is a main character, possibly one of the girls in the picture? I haven’t seen this anime) Marina is Jewish could be possible motivation for having an apparent Muslim antagonist is a sad effect of recent history, and that Muslim-Jewish relations have been good since the middle of the 20th century, as evinced by the Muslim’s aid towards the Jews in Spain and the Crusades, as the two biggest reasons.
-Otter (P.S. this is a nice blog, very entertaining :) )
June 1st, 2008 at 7:06 am
This is a quick reply a statement in post 100.
“. When God expressively forbids killing it is not possible to claim that you can kill within christianity. Seeing as you also are unable to spot the difference in values in nazism and christianity I will really have to recommend that you learn something. Ignorance is not “cool”.”
Actually god doesn’t say “do not kill”. Looking at the original bible before it was translated its states “do not murder.” So in that context, if you are fighting in self defense then killing is justified in god’s eyes.
Also I have no idea whether or not Hitler was a christian, but he justified invading other countries in defense of germans. Which was technically his job as a political leader of germany. He believed (wrongly in my opinion) that jews would take over and that the well-beings of german citizens would become an issue. Also, after ww1 germany was so in debt from paying out restoration fees to the victors that there was nothing left for the german people. That was why he held such authority, become the germans saw him as a saviour, he gave them jobs, he gave them food, he gave them hope.
Therefore if he was a christian technically the beginning of his war would have been justifiable.
Can’t say I can say the thing about America though, who dropped the atomic bombs on Japan when they were pretty much ready to surrender. Not to mention that it was America’s greediness and wanting to profit from the war that brought Japan into the war to begin with.
Google “8 step plan to provoke japan.”
Anyways that’s all I really wanted to say. Oh btw, just in case someone here thinks I’m a Hitler-sympathizer, I’m really not, deaths of millions of people in any circumstance is horrible. I just hate the fact that no one know what actually happened because the victorious western countries paint themselves as the almighty powers of righteousness, and don’t bother to tell the other side of the story.
June 1st, 2008 at 12:02 pm
Many people translate the commandment, “Thou shalt not murder” as “Thou shalt not kill”. Regardless of what you think, I believe no killing is truly justified, but, some are more understandable than others.
Killing always hurts someone indirectly, but the question is who does it hurt, thus, killing is always bad. I wish everyone would just try to avoid it, but that obviously won’t happen with our current world situation.
Secondly, Christianity, in no way, shape, or form, could justify the Holocaust. See, if the Jews were actually responsible for Germany’s economic problems, then maybe, a very fundamnetalist Christian could believe that Christianity justifies the Holocaust. But, you must remember, Hitler’s ideas were wrong. Because of this, his murder of the Jews was unjustified, therefore, it cannot be called killing, and slip by this interpretation conflict of the commandment, “Thou shalt not kill”.
Besides, this doesn’t explain Hitler’s mass murder of homosexuals, blacks, Catholics, Romas, Communists, Russians, Polish…They were not believe to cause any economic problems, and the only reason groups like the Communists were considered bad is because of Hitler’s propaganda (accusing Communists of burning down the Reichstag).
It’s just murder, plain and simple. Nobody can even begin to justify the Holocaust, from any point of view. There is no justification for something that cruel and sickening.
If the other side of the argument truly was justified, then why did they force the elderly, the young, and all men, women, and children into what was basically slavery? Why did they gas them in large groups? Why did they strip them naked and use firing squad tactics on them, then bury thousands of Jews in one mass grave? Why did they throw living children into ovens?
I’m sickened by the fact you even tried to understand the other side. There is no understanding with the sick bastards who call themselves Nazis.
Just so you know, it isn’t just the West that portrays themselves as righteous. Every winner does this…Look at Vietnam. Do they tell their people that the righteous American Army was defeated by the evil Communists in the North? No, they say the exact opposite in their land.
Please, don’t stereotype the West. Every nation does stupid things, it is just that we get more focus, because we are able to be more involved in today’s society.
June 1st, 2008 at 12:10 pm
What is there to tell of the other side of the story? By using an unjust argument that was entirely flawed and scapegoated every minority or opposition in the region, a madman rose to power legally in an economically depressed state and murdered millions? Why do we even need to re-consider this? What loopholes are there in this statement that could in any way justify what the Nazis did.
I agree, we need to see every side of the problem cube, but some sides are actually legitimate. However, in recent conflicts, it has mostly been the opposite, most opposing sides have been entirely unjustified, and bended information in their favor to justify acts of cruelty and murder against innocent individuals. This is exactly what radical Muslims are doing. Using their bent interpretation of the Qu’ran to justify the murder of thousands of innocent civilians. This is why there is no understanding of the other side, as there is nothing legitimate to understand.
June 2nd, 2008 at 10:13 am
@sishypus
You yourself need more knowledge on the religion. You have misunderstood the verse you have said. Please do not make up stories such as the prophet assassinate people that insulted him.
June 2nd, 2008 at 4:05 pm
Religions… again?
I say it’s barking mad. I grew up in an Islamic environment and I testify that plenty of them are chirping left and right about how Christianity sucks. Go to a nearby bookstore and find the “Islam” section and see what you’ve got; books that openly attack Christianity or atheism with no political correctness whatsoever.
And surprise… it doesn’t work both ways. Try criticizing *their* religion and face utter condemnations.
To play devil’s advocate, however, I fail to see much good in the anime scene myself. The Koran-reading scene, it’s so unnecessary. Sure thing, Sinfest does that, but I’d have to say it does more harm than good.
All religions (and freethinking ideologies) are lambasted left and right. Islam needs to grow up. Ideas WILL be criticized. Just don’t involve explosives in the process…
I mean, face it. Live with it. You believe in an idea, be prepared to face criticisms about it. Grow the hell up.
@ baka
The prophet did kill people that insulted him. I was in the far right once, so I knew that it’s a sound fact. Check out the sirah nabi thing.
June 2nd, 2008 at 4:12 pm
Ah, on the same subject, I find this article very much enlightening about understanding religions and religious people.
In the end, it’s not about right or wrong. It’s about identity. Religion is a Tribalism v2.0.
June 3rd, 2008 at 1:15 am
@Mach Jabber
That’s where you have misunderstood. The prophet did not kill the person that insulted him. In fact, the prophet forgave the person. There is a hadith that says the penalty of insulting the prophet is by killing the person (which i think is stupid), and that was said by an ulama, not by the prophet himself. For your info, there are hadith and sirah that are wrongly interpret.
And what I think is that the religion is not the one that needs to grow up, is the human itself that needs to grow up.
June 4th, 2008 at 7:33 pm
I find it rather intriguing that religion, that’s supposed to be a perfect teaching; righteous, concise and clear, is so easily misunderstood. How sloppy. I say if God did this, he could’ve done better. Still, liberalism is a good trend, I respect your more tolerant approach.
Cheers.
June 5th, 2008 at 8:10 am
@Dan
What is there to tell of the other side of the story? Plenty.
I think I mentioned earlier that I’m not a Hitler supporter or sympathizer in any way, and I do believe that what he did was just plain wrong however attempting to understand the reasoning does at least cast the situation in a better light. He was definitively not the blood thirsty mad man you imagine. He was a political leader who envisioned something much better for his country. WW1 was not germany’s fault, in was a huge mess. But they were blamed for it, and Hitler who experienced that war as a foot soldier was outraged. First they were trying to take back the land that was taken from them, and then continued to conquer land in an attempt to increase production areas. With more farmland, and more factories there would be more jobs and more exporting of goods, which meant money would be brought in to help their economic status.
“I agree, we need to see every side of the problem cube, but some sides are actually legitimate. However, in recent conflicts, it has mostly been the opposite, most opposing sides have been entirely unjustified.”
You are clearly stating your belief in what your government prints in their textbooks. Their side can be justified just like ours can.
Canada for one turned away a ship full of jewish refugees, meaning their only choice was to go back to germany and be killed. France was a huge supporter of killing jews, they even attempted to pay germany to take them. Germany said no since they were attemping to get rid of them themselves, and would have given them up to any country willing to take them in. In the end no one wanted to, because their hatred was just as strong as Hitler’s. Then Hitler’s patience ran out and he decided to take matters into his own hands.
I’m not saying Hitler was right in doing this, I’m just saying that there really is so “righteous” side. Every country did unforgivable things, yet the winners’ sins were forgiven. This is what I want to make clear. Also, if no one ever seeks to understand all they can, how will it ever be possible to prevent such things from happening again?
June 6th, 2008 at 12:21 am
Religion is perfect. It just that we humans are the ones that make it worst.
June 6th, 2008 at 12:22 pm
So….. who’s Marina? dun remember seeing her anywhere, but darn it she looks hot… gya ha ha
June 9th, 2008 at 12:09 am
She’s Princess Marina Ismail of the Kingdom of Azidistan, a(n imo) crappy character from Gundam 00. She’s only crap because she doesn’t do anything, sort of like Relena from Wing. But hopefully she will start in Season 2. (Marina is the black haired one. The one whose boobs are pressed against Marina’s is Shirin I’mnotsurewhatherlastnameis).
Also, I’ve never come across a mention of her being Jewish. There’re some significant portions of Iran which are Jewish, but I’m not sure about the monarch following a religion that’s not the popular one. From (possibly deluded) observation, the popular religion seems to be Islamic.
Also, hey guys there’s no point arguing about religion on- or offline. People will always have their differences, and convincing people that they are wrong doesn’t really work! Let’s all be friends!
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June 9th, 2008 at 2:44 am
Except that it has become necessary in recent years. The western world is in really deep shit right now, mainly because we are overly politically correct idiots. The whole “lets all get along” thing simply does not work when it comes to Islam and their plans for us.
June 9th, 2008 at 5:59 pm
I think it important to know that it isn’t intentional insult. Other than that Muslims don’t really think that Christian sucks and they don’t really attack them but we have some similarity and disagreements when it comes to some believes. Besides we think that Christians and Jewish are far better than other religions. I think you shouldn’t group all Muslims with Muslim terrorists, because in reality we are a bunch of weakling who is whole concern is avoiding problems and finding a way to entertain them selfs.In my opinion if I was religious enough I would’ve lived my life happier. I also think that you don’t have the right to talk about Islam since you don’t know much about it.
June 9th, 2008 at 7:30 pm
It doesnt matter what the normal muslim think, they dont matter at all. Except this: Where there is islamic influence of any kind, the extremists have an easier time spreading their influence.
Moderate muslims are not necessarily a bad thing, but they pave the way for the extremists.
June 13th, 2008 at 3:53 am
@ Guner,
When it involves politics, there’s always influence. Being a muslim does not make any easier to spread the propaganda, it happens to all those who choose which side they support (even you). Your last post seems one-side and showed that you still need to pursue more knowledge before making assumption.
June 13th, 2008 at 8:29 am
You dont understand the situation. Muslims, all of them, moderate or not, are heavily influenced by their religious leaders. The muslims in europe are not integrated, they are living in parallel societies. In England there are already religious courts that handle some of their cases outside of the normal british law, they have even managed to make any image of pigs forbidden in some areas.
Islam is not just a religion, its also a political system. The totalitarian kind. And in the areas where they have enough people, enough political pressure, they are trying to make the commands of the quran law.
One of the red flags is this: Until not very long ago muslim law only applied to Muslims. The Muhammed drawings were one of the first cases of attempting to make non-muslims follow muslim law. It will only get worse if we let it.
June 13th, 2008 at 2:52 pm
I’m afraid it is you who do not understand the situation. Muslims are not the only one that is heavily influenced by their leaders, other people from other religion and country is also influenced by their leaders. Even you are influenced by the Danish media saying that it’s a freedom of speech. And it is natural that the law is followed by majority, right? That’s why we have the election system. And it is true that muslim laws only applied to muslim. However, the thing about the drawing of the prophet is a form of an insult, thus attacking the religion. As a muslim, it is a duty to protect the image of Islam. That’s why muslim all around asked the Danish media to stop publishing the drawing. They are not asking you to follow their law. And in addition, when you insult someone or someone who is respected, it is natural for humans to retaliate. If I insulted or accuse your country is the one that started this whole mess, I’m sure you would step in and defend your country, like what you are doing now .The problem is that they do not listen, thus preventing a peaceful solution. See what happen now? Hmm, what about me? I’m only defending what is right..Sure freedom of speech is encourage, however, there are something in this world does not comes free.
June 13th, 2008 at 9:01 pm
No more walls of text please.
The law is followed in the areas it applies to. Religious courts do not represent british law. They are illegal, yet tolerated because the brits are spineless.
There have been countless instances of so called “insults” to the prophet before the drawings, but nothing was done about it. There is no basis in their religion for demanding that we follow their rules in our own countries.
So why? Its because they saw it as an opportunity to expand their influence. They saw us as small, weak, easily scared into submission, and if they had won this battle it would have set a precedent that would make it easier still to do similar things in other parts of europe later. Fortunately they were only right about the first part.
And you can stop making stuff up now. They were not asking us to apologize for the drawings, they were demanding it, in the form of flag and embassy burning and sanctions and death threats and murders. Several people will be living in hiding under police protection for the rest of their lives as a result. It is not anywhere close to as innocent as you pretend. Islam is a very dangerous religion and it is in our best interest to stop it from spreading in our part of the world.
June 13th, 2008 at 11:56 pm
Are you sure nothing is done to the drawing? There are peaceful negotiation before to stop publishing of the drawing, yet the danish newspaper does not comply, saying as the so called reason you have explained. Humans these days are thick-headed.
However, my main point is this; No religion is dangerous, including Islam, Christian and others. It people like the extremist and political leaders, (or maybe you) are making the things dangerous, with their so called political right. You all see others as a hostile and try to influence others with those kind of thinking. Religion is not the blame for this mess.
And I’m not making stuff. Which part of the country that demands apologies in form of death threat and stuffs? It’s a small group, usually run by extremist leaders . Try asking a proper country like malaysia, all they did is just boycott danish products. As I was saying, it’s the people making the religion looks dangerous.
June 14th, 2008 at 2:30 am
The extremists are the ones with actual political influence and control over the religion. They are the ones with money. They are the ones who represent it. They are the ones who made many countries stop trading with us. And they are dangerous.
Unless you wanna live under a totalitarian political system as dictated by their religion, you really ought to stop defending them.
June 14th, 2008 at 10:43 am
That’s what i am telling you, as you do not know the truth behind religion. It’s not the religion (you have said Islam is dangerous religion), it’s the people. The danish media have caused misunderstanding and they are part to blame for the mass too.
And I’m not defending their acts for brutality. It’s just that the way you put is making the whole lot of muslim look bad. I have muslim friends and they are not as what you describe. What you are describe is only happen in the middle east, and as you can see, middle east is much to corrupted to even defend their religion.
And no, I’m gonna live my own lives and stand up to what i believe.
June 14th, 2008 at 11:17 am
The people are the religion. Its a manmade idea, not some kind of physical thing with an independent will.
And your muslim friends still dont matter at all. They have no power, no influence. They are irrelevant.
June 15th, 2008 at 8:53 pm
So are you. You have no power, no influence. You are irrelevant, yet you are trying to spread out propaganda about bad things about other religion and stuff. You are no better than the extremist, who also spread out propaganda about bad things about other people. These are the main cause of distortion of peace.
June 15th, 2008 at 9:02 pm
And so communication breaks down.
June 21st, 2008 at 1:00 am
Of course, of course. Hitler’s plan was to get the economy out of a depression and to take back stolen land. And how did he do it? Murdering 12 million innocents who had nothing to do with either of those issues? Just because any problem can be justified doesn’t mean the justification is legitimate.
June 28th, 2008 at 11:40 am
Everyone talks about Islam as if they’re experts. You talk about Muslims as if they’re wild berserk animals and killing machines, and then they label them as “Terrorists” or “extremists”.
Muslims are oversensitive because they have been targeted. Naturally, they should be that way. I mean, i haven’t heard myself about extremism untill US involvement in the Gulf war. before that, have you?
Islam world is pretty large, the mid east, the so unstable-unpredictable region of the earth. and then you talk about everyone not wanting the Jews and decide to force them in “palestine” and slaughter some 100′s thousands of Muslims for your convenience (germany, canada; since they rejected jews refugees, and then UK).
There is no justification in taking innocent lives, whatsover. But, when those muslims fell into despair and realized they’re targeted they took an act of disperation and just blew themselves up causing collateral or whatever. (terrorist attacks, all over the world now..)
to them, its justified.
Dont be part of the problem or whats causing an escallation to it, dont criticize, try finding the solution and reason.
Lets take Denmark for an example, those toons, really pissed off all those ppl who respect their religion, they call it freedom of something, but hey what happened to respecting all those 1. some billion muslims!
If you’re to put someone’s work in ur paper they’d call it plagiarism! and you’re severely punished. You have to use quotations and etc..
But if you use a verse of “kuraan” in ‘this case’ in an anime then there absulotely nothing wrong with it. where is the sense in that.
I wouldnt take it as an offince, but atleast i can understand what is the Muslims point.
so afterall, just a bit of consideration and courtesy wont hurt, and it would save up this whole headache!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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