The flag outside the Swedish embassy in Malaysia was set on fire last week in a protest against newspaper caricatures of the Muslim Prophet Mohammad. Malays assembled at the embassy gates to demand that action be taken over cartoonist Lars Vilks and the Swedish newspapers who published controversial drawings of the revered religious figure.
A crowd of 200 Muslim demonstrators gathered in Kuala Lumpur to object to the cartoons which depict Muhammad as a dog. During the demonstration, the embassy’s Swedish flag was confiscated by protesters and set alight. According to The Local, the group also presented Helena Sangeland, the Swedish ambassador in Malaysia, with a letter of objection.
“They want to protest against the publication of Lars Vilks’s drawings in Swedish newspapers. Their demand is that the Swedish government acts against the Swedish newspapers which published the pictures and also against Lars Vilks,” said Sangeland.
Speaking about the flag burning, Sangeland added,”It was very surprising and something that we cannot tolerate. We have reported the matter to the police.” Sangeland also reported that a boycott of Swedish products had been threatened by the youth league of PAS, the main Malaysian Islamic party, at recent demonstrations. A further letter of complaint was handed to the embassy last week during a demonstration by right-wing Malaysian group Pertubuhan Pribumi Perkasa Malaysia (Perkasa).
Sangeland did say, however, that she does not consider the recent events to amount to a security risk for Swedes visiting Malaysia. In response to the suggestion, she said, “Absolutely not. Nor can I see that our bilateral relations should change because of this.”
MUSLIMS are prohibited from drawing a picture of Mohammad. Since Lars Vilks is not a Muslim, that rule does not apply him. And when it comes to derogatory content of the picture, for decades the media in Islamic countries has published highly insulting caricatures, propaganda and lies about other religions.
In Malaysia, indeed, things are not fair. Other religions are prohibited from publishing their books to Malays (Muslims), while there is no similar rule the other way. This one-way conversion is hardly fair, considering 40% of the population is other than Muslims.
So, this caricature row is about Muslims’ opinion that their religion is the highest and everybody should obey them. All the Western newspapers should jointly publish the Mohammad caricatures. There may not be freedom of speech in Muslim countries, but Western countries should protect theirs.
And here we go again…..
The only persons who should object to this cartoon are other cartoonists..because it is such a very bad drawing!
These demonstrators should also go to the dutch embassy and burn the dutch flag because a lot of dutch newspapers have published this cartoon in order to support freedom of speech.