Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Protests

This is the first part of a three part series, please find the other parts here and here.

The Indus Highway is one of the busiest national routes connecting several important cities of Pakistan with one another. But the angry mob that shut it down for traffic was probably oblivious to this fact. The closure presumably forced dozens of commuters on either sides of the blockade to look for alternate routes or – even worse – wait indefinitely until the crowd scatters. The reason for the protest apparently was the reprinting of the blasphemous cartoons by the Danish papers. The result of the protest? As always, some burnt effigies, a few items set ablaze, broken windows etc. of which definitely none was a property of the sketcher, the paper, Denmark or even any foreigner. Those things must have belonged to one of our own people, who probably would have ended up having definitely negative thoughts about the mob – so much for making friends!

Several time zones away, the cartoonist responsible for the provocation was probably ensconced in the safety of his home. The papers publishing the trash are adamant on their so-called freedom of expression, the Danish government is unperturbed by the global outcry in the Muslim world, even after the threat of some Muslim countries to ban Danish products, and all that the Muslim governments can do is call the Danish envoy to the foreign office and “vehemently” protest to him, then asked him on tea and discussed the prospects of new trade scenarios with Denmark.

While all of this is going on, a new controversy is cooking in the financial capital of the world. In a busy Manhattan street, New york, a new building is being built. Nothing new and nothing wrong with that so far, except that it’s shaped as a cube and is colored black. And if you still don’t smell a rat, here’s the killer punch, the building’s being called Apple Mecca, and apart from being a showroom to Macintosh’s various products, is said to have a liquor bar of its own. A move that’s certain to draw further protest from Muslims all across the globe. More fervent protests are expected in response to this fresh episode of deliberately hurting Muslim sentiment. So one can predict that more violence is going to follow and again, the rioters will vent their anger on local properties instead of doing some meaningful protest.

This is the first part of a three part series, please find the other parts here and here.

Hat tip: Owais @ ExxSol

1 comment:

Tahir Akhtar said...

Faraz bhai,
I remember being shown by someone at my office that the apple mecca story is not correct.
The cube shaped "building" is not a building but the top floor of the Apple's store that is actually completely transparent.
The picture that is roaming the internet was taken before the store opened to public. The glass walls, at that moment, were still plastered with black stickers.

http://www.apple.com/pr/products/retail/retail.html
http://news.com.com/2300-1041_3-6061620-1.html

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Tahir