MUI and the Q Film Festival...

The MUI, the Indonesian Ulema Council, is always good for coming up with creative ways to characterise all manner of things, but let's face it human rights is not one of their fortes. So, it was mildly amusing to read that the MUI has decided that its position for opposing the Q film festival being held in Jakarta is that homosexuality is a breach of human rights.

The Q film festival is Asia's largest gay and lesbian film festival. The fact that it is being held in Indonesia is a victory for Indonesian gay and lesbian activists and for moderate Islam. Nevertheless, there are always those hard-liners who cannot accept nor tolerate difference. These people are not only the fanatics of the Islamic Defenders' Front (FPI) but also the upstanding interpreters of God's words at the MUI.

The rest of the MUI argument is that the French, German and Japanese governments are violating Indonesia's sovereignty by allowing gays and lesbians to screen films using their facilities. According to the MUI, homosexuality is just not the Indonesian way, it is not culturally acceptable, and besides all of these countries call themselves defenders of human rights but actively engage in permitting the abuse of human rights by tolerating homosexuality.

Aside from not being culturally acceptable in Indonesia, the MUI also makes the point that homosexuality is not tolerated in Islam either. But, most Indonesians would know this already in light of Tifatul Sembiring's recent tweets and his quoting of some relevant Sura. Yet, I can think of a few places where the practice of Islam is less moderate than in Indonesia but seems to be tolerated in the turning of a blind eye sense. Maybe, Ma'ruf should watch The Kite Runner, he might learn a thing or two about life.

Yes, if you are shaking your head and wondering whatever are they talking about, then you are not alone.

However, head shaking aside. The argument that homosexuality is a violation of human rights deserves a second look because it is an argument that I have not heard before. It is also an argument that I had to think about in order to get my head around it. After all, I figured that if we are all children of God then we are products of God and as such will be responsible to her (or him) come judgment day. But, it would seem, according to Ma'ruf Amin of the MUI, argues that homosexuality is a breach of human rights because God gave rights to men and women to marry each other, but not to men to marry men or women to marry other women.

Uh huh, now I get it, gay marriage is forbidden in Islam. Although, I am not a big fan of Wikipedia as an authoritative source of information, it is worth a read because it can quite often point one towards more authoritative sources. However, this Wikipedia entry on homosexuality in Islam is worth a read, particularly the part about the history  of homosexuality.

Anything Goes - The Last Supper Revisited!

The Internet is truly a place where anything goes and the boundaries of freedom of speech and good taste are often pushed to the extreme and perhaps regularly crossed.

However, as I was reading a story about a sketch that depicts the Last Supper as a homosexual orgy, which I might add was part of an exhibition being hosted by a Catholic Church in Austria in celebration of one of Austria's finest painters, Alfred Hrdlicka.

Nah, I know nothing about art or about one of Austria's finest painters but I do have to say trying to find the painting in question has proved way more difficult than I thought it might have been but persistence pays and I have located the sketch (above) and I have found a video of it here...

Not to be deterred though my travels led me to another depiction of the Last Supper that has a very definite S & M theme happening and it is just so Village People. This is the second picture!

The point of this post is not to offend (although it probably will) and it is not to make any pronouncement on what freedom of speech or expression means. Hopefully, the post will highlight that something does not have to breach the boundaries of free speech to offend. I am certain that if Indonesian Catholics were offended by the depiction of Soeharto and his children in the Last Supper scene then these two pictures are truly going to test the limits.

Nevertheless, the point is this; if the Indonesian government is going to block and prohibit access to the film Fitna because it is likely to upset the apple cart of harmony and public order in Indonesia then surely pictures of this kind have that same potential and should be banned (sad that I am advocating for my own banning)...

I guess what I am asking you to do is this, and that is ask yourselves these questions?

1. Is art, even where it offends, a legitimate expression of free speech and freedom of expression?

2. Who should decide what I look at as a consenting adult, the government or me?

There are probably many more questions that I could pose here but I will let you, my readers (some of whom I might have offended -- my apologies for any offence but not for the post) throw questions back at me...You already know from my previous postings that I am into constructive debate on topics that matter.