Hey JC, won’t you smile for me?

Due to public demand...a little poem

Hey Mo, won`t you smile for me
And change my river into a sea?
I don`t want your desert
I don`t want your camel
I don`t want dates dropping with glee.

Tell them it isn`t so weird
Only because I like beards
I don`t even know what you look like
Yet they ask me to go take a hike
Like a fool I ask for a raise
They say I don`t deserve any praise
Only `coz I didn`t tell you to
Let your jaws break.

So, hey Mo, won`t you smile for me?
- - -

Merry Christmas halur...Bandra is really bling-blinging.

More later.

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since romair asked the question - he is always asking silly questions! - here is the answer .........

WHAT WAS JESUS?

There were 3 good arguments that Jesus was Black:
1. He called everyone ``brother``.
2. He liked Gospel.
3. He couldn`t get a fair trial.

But then there were 3 equally good arguments that Jesus was Jewish:
1. He went into His Father`s business.
2. He lived at home until he was 33.
3. He was sure his Mother was a virgin and his mother was sure he was God.

But then there were 3 equally good arguments that Jesus was Italian:
1. He talked with his hands.
2. He had wine with every meal.
3. He used olive oil.

But then, there were 3 equally good arguments that Jesus was a Californian:
1. He never cut his hair.
2. He walked around barefoot all the time.
3. He started a new religion.

But then, there were 3 equally good arguments that Jesus was Irish:
1. He never got married.
2. He was always telling stories.
3. He loved green pastures.

But the most compelling evidence of all -- 3 proofs that Jesus was a woman:

1. He fed a crowd at a moment`s notice when there was no food.
2. He kept trying to get a message across to a bunch of men who just didn`t get it.
3. And even when he was dead, He had to get up because there was more work to do!

Re: #6
kaka: good post!

Romair #19,
You dont seem to be a very big Madonna fan.Watched her video ``Like a prayer``?

Nikki beti,

humay koi itraaz nahin agar aap yaan loee aur Muhammed kee khoj karain. yaan uskee tasveer banaain.

mazhab kee har baat shakhs ko jazbati kar deti hai

Farzana, these ideas aren`t new, as you know. Even the Unitarians so long ago believed something like this. The Last Temptation, The Gospel according to Jesus, etc., etc., are only a few of the recent attempts to project Jesus as a human being for the ``common man`` (whoever that is). Helps to sell. (It`s all about the money, honey.) And now, as Jawahara in #7 points out, it`s become part of popular folklore, thanks to Dan Brown`s The Da Vinci Code. Yogananda`s suggestions are really part of Hindu thinking at least since the time of Ramakrishna Parahamsa. I remember long, long ago, being taken to Jesus`s grave in Kashmir. And being told of his marriage and his progeny and descendants.
We all know that the Bible, especially the New Testament, was a very human construct, of what some people wanted to establish as the Word of God, for their own purposes. Especially the portrayal of Mary Magdalene.
BTW, the word is Essene, not Essence.
The thing is that Christians don`t regard Jesus as a prophet but as God, which makes a difference, doesn`t it? How about deconstructing all prophets/versions of God?
For Hindus this wouldn`t be troublesome, but conventional Christians are as close-minded as anybody else, and one can hear howls of protest across the US and Australia - interestingly, the Europeans, and the Brits, are quite relaxed about this.
Hindu icons are fair game, of course, but what happens if someone writes like this about the Prophet of Islam?

FV:
Can you do a piece on Mo`s pedo-flame on Ash next time.. ? that would be something new...

cheers

Nikki,
Religion makes people different. About 10 years ago, when I lived in Bombay, one of the evening papers had a outline of a figure, which some claimed was a silhouette of Mohammed. In no time a mob gathered outside the newspapers offices and threatened to kill the editor. Ultimately the police defused the situation. You and me may find this outrageous, but that is how religions make people different. And Farzana is not to blame for that.

Romair, obviously Jesus is shown as blond, blue-eyed, etc., because he was appropriated by Europeans, who used him to ``civilize`` and convert the colonies, who were most impressed by the whiteman so different from themselves. Haven`t you seen brown Jesuses in 20th-century South Asian iconography (and black, even negroid, Jesuses in African ones)? As a Jew I guess he`d look like a Jew is conventionally supposed to look like - regardless of the shroud of Turin etc.
But how would images of Jesus or other religious icons propagate strife even further?

..... life of rizwan ?

.......... it has been a long time since monty python made that wonderful classic that so many of us have seen so many times and have grown to love so much .......... it has been almost twenty five years and civilization has come a long way - people have learned to laugh at their silly superstitions even though they still look up to make sure a thunderbolt is not headed their way as they make fun of all those prophets of the past who walked the earth either barefooted or in hippie sandals ........... so, i think it is time for someone to make ``life of rizwan `` ....... no?.......

.......... personally, i think it would be a hoot ........ think of the possibilities ........... anybody wants to take a shot at putting together a script ?......... man, oh man !......... my imagination is running wild !......... anybody wants to offer me a couple of million bucks for a script that would rock the world ? ......... make it fifteen million and a new identity plus a mansion on a tropical island guarded by bernard kerik and man-eating sharks and i will do it !

.... forget it !.......it ain`t worth the risk .......... let`s just pick on poor jc instead - everybody has been picking on him since his father abandoned him at birth ....... did you know they are making another movie about him : passion 2 - jesus strikes back ! ........ it is a kung fu movie with chuck norris as jesus of nazareth and he kicks the crap out the romans, the money lenders, the priests and all those other people who made fun of him ............

........ but it is still bugging me....... this idea, this movie, life of rizwan ........... i can think of so many hilarious lines, so many sidesplitting scenes - it would be so much fun .............promise!.............somone has to do it ........

HP #15: I am not sure whether having pictures of religious figures is such a good idea. It would do more harm than good. There is already enough division in religions, it would furthur propogate it.

As an example, consider what Christ has been drawn out to be. He is always shown as a blond haired, blue eyed, white skinned man. His height seems around six feet and his hair is long and wavy.

I am not an expert anthropologist (or whatever field relates to this subject). However, I find it hard to believe that a man in the Middle East from Bethlehem would be white-skinned. I doubt he would have blue eyes. And th long wavy blond hair is really out of the question. And from what I have heard, Jews of those times were in the five and half feet range; not six feet.

One would guess Jesus looked more Arab than anything else. Curly brownish hair, wheatish complexion, with brown eyes. I even read somewhere that Jesus could have been a Black man.

How did he end up looking like the White man of Europe. Because, it would have turned the whole society upside down, had he turned out to be Black. Or drawn Black. I am still waiting for a Jesus related movie, with a Denzel Washington in the lead role. Since Jesus was painted White, hence slavery etc. was not big issue.

If people started drawing the Muhammad, he would be painted based on whomever can fund the paintings the most. There would be a Wahabi drawing, Shia drawing, Naqshbandi drawing, Ahmedi drawing and what not.

Religion should be debated, discussed, critiqued, researched till the cows come home. It should not be ridiculed. And most of all, it should never be turned into a commercial venture......Even if religion, nowdays sells as much as sex and violence.

I am always amazed how certain people go out of their way to keep religion out of politics, but have no problems with pushing religion into commercialism. If religion in commercial ventures is freedom of expression, then so is religion in politics. One can`t have it both ways............

#15

heh heh mr iconophile, go ahead and do a picture..maybe just on chowk perhaps?

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Post # 13.
Why is mockery so terrible ? It is a good thing for the human condition to have our prophets
knocked about and their clay feet shattered.
As one born into the christian faith I find nothing offensive about Farzana`s article.

``hey mo, won`t you smile for me``

Sometimes I think Hamidm is a prophet himself! But seriously why not? Why Muslims can’t have mo smile for them?
There are taboos in every religion but most of the time those taboos are generally shared through out all regions. But Islam has different meaning for different people if they live in different geographical environments.
There was a time in Iran when you can actually find prophet Mohammed’s picture. In fact, I have seen his pictures in many Iranian publications. Not only his picture, but also pictures of all Khalifas and other sundry religious figures.
I think some Arab countries do not have a problem with religious figures pictures. Ali’s pictures are commonly available in Iraq and I think in Jordon too.
In India and Pakistan, one of the many rules that cannot be bent, is the picture of the Prophet and his khalifa.
Some Islamic publications have described the physical attributes of Prophet in details and if you could describe such details in words then why not let an artist draw a picture that would probably closely resemble the prophet?
I heard that Islam places restrictions on Picture taking, drawing or painting. But when we can have pictures of all holy places displayed all over the town, when you can have all mullah demonstrate with Khana Kaaba on their shoulders, why would they object to pictures of some holy people?
How is it less respectful to look at the picture and more respectful when you don’t look at the picture?