Satire and cartoons
Angela Robinson, Lalmatia, Dhaka
I am sure I am not the only reader who is hugely enjoying the articles by Shahnoor Wahid, not only because of their wit and wisdom but because, at last, here is an example of a much misunderstood and rarely practised literary art in these parts SATIRE! In his first article, on March 30th, the writer did, in fact, both mock and grieve over those who claim to be deeply religious Muslims but, at the same time, do not scorn the things of this world when it comes to detonators, mobiles and chemicals. He pointed out that the actions, religious jargon and attitude of such people proved they were 'intellectually impaired' and yet had this 'holier-than-thou' disposition. Indeed, their 'religion' was 'an over-dose of the religion fed by the quacks.' This was strong stuff and, indeed, satire is meant to be sharp, and even painful, when it comes to pricking pretensions and stimulating self-examination by raising a laugh. The best satire is like a dose of salt to purge the system. Yes, it can be interpreted as hurtful and rude even insulting - but then, the true satirist should not be mocking anyone on the grounds of religion, race or culture in themselves but only for how these things 'come over' to others the impression they give the view from another side - the public face that, indeed people are sometimes totally unaware of. Satire can be a savage kick under the table to make someone 'wake up' who is giving offence to those who are also eating, but the objective is not to make them leave the table! In Europe, in practice, 'secularism' means 'anti-religious'. What has been rather strange is the way that the secularists there, who do not hesitate to take a pick-axe to Christianity, are usually very concerned about being nice and fair to other religions, particularly Islam. Hence the refusal of some councils to send out Christmas cards with any hint of Christian content, for fear of 'offending other religions'. (This has been condemned by several sensible Muslims as ridiculous!). In Britain, you see, you can be as rude as you like about anyone in your speech and a recent Parliamentary Bill that tried to stop this by banning the verbal insulting of any religion, got thrown out. But the moment you take action - or threaten to do so, then that is quite another matter! You can say what you like against others but you do NOT join a mob to torch their house, kidnap their child or utter any threats to do such things. That is how 'tolerance' works in Europe. It is indeed a very wide culture gap and bridging it requires the imagination to see ourselves as others see us.
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