[...And Nobody Said Anything?]
(an angry and emotional entry by YBLalat)

This morning and out of the apartment, slamming the door, I walked out hurriedly to class, or to be more precise, the nearest newspaper stand. The Minnesota Daily is what I was looking for. After a long search around the U area, from building to building, I finally got hold of one new copy of the day and instantly threw away my bag and sat down on the grass under my shoes amidst all the in-between classes traffic.

Yesterday’s edition had an editorial cartoon that portrayed a tudung-wearing Muslim woman giving misleading remarks about issues related with the tragic death of Americans in the September 11th attack and the current U.S-led war in Afghanistan. Its title, ‘As Seen on TV’, implied that the words used by this Muslim woman character were extracted verbatim from national and local TV shows; thus, to be verified as a reliable reference.

I don’t have the cartoon clipping with me as of this moment, but I can still recall the gist of each box’s dialogue. The words went something like below.

Box 1: "Now, the US knows how it actually feels like to be bombed."
Box 2: "We don’t care how many Americans died in the tragedy!"
Box 3: "Osama bin Laden is our hero!"
Box 4: "Why are you bombing us? We are not terrorists!"

From the way the artist drew her face, the Muslim woman was depicted as being filled with hatred, showing no remorse, high-spirited, and confused as she say each dialogue in each boxes above, respectively.

The first time (yesterday during lecture) I read that cartoon, I was a bit confused as to what was the message so funny that the cartoonist wanted to share with the readers. I read it again and again and tried to imagine, what is message of that cartoon that would make an average American laugh. What was the cartoonist trying to convey here, I thought. And then, almost like a hammer thumping on my skull, it hit me.

"Fuck! Accusation via association! Generalization of the few!"

The motherfucker was an ignorant fool. An insensitive fuck actually.

I was totally enraged. My mom wears a headscarf of faith just like the one portrayed, and my aunt wears one too, even if she is only 19, and they take pride in practicing what the many looks at nowadays as ‘old-fashioned’ and ‘out of time’. My father and both of my grandfathers are very strict and conservative, with very strong reasons, in enforcing the tudung onto their wives, daughters and female relatives. Wearing the headscarf is a must for Muslim girls and women. If you are not wearing a tudung, you are disobeying God’s simplest rule. If you are not wearing one, you are a disgrace to this family and me. Wear it or face scorn, as simple and as clear as that.

I grew up in a religiously conservative family environment. The way my father and his father run the family is the one and only way to run a family, any family. In obeying God’s basic rules, there is no freedom of choice. To hell with feminism! To hell with women’s lib! A Muslim woman who does not wear a headscarf is not worthy of a wife, or a relative or a friend. She who smokes and wears short, tight skirts is a whore. She who tags along to a man without a proper knot of marriage or an engagement is a wench. She who fucks out of wedlock is a dog.

And when a Muslim woman denies these basic rules of faith and boastfully lives the life of an infidel, labeling it the way of the modern world, the way of the Westernized, it enrages me. And when an ignorant infidel mocks the fashion of faith that my mom and female relatives take pride in practicing, for the sake of God and their honor, it infuriated me. And when a Muslim ignores the cartoon that mocks his/her faith and laughs along and says "This does not apply to me", it set fire to my heart, burning the rage even more furious than before.

It turns out that nobody said anything about the damn cartoon, not even the Muslim Students’ Association, or the Arab Students’ Association, or the fucking Malaysian Students’ Association (even when the headscarf drawn on the cartoon character is in a very Malay Muslim-like fashion). I was deeply disappointed and very frustrated by what I saw that morning. How could this happen? Nobody said anything? The readers’ letter section of the daily had nobody said anything, but crappy, local issues that I don’t give a fuck.

And to think I have deep respect for these student body groups?

What have all that leadership qualities you earned and motivational courses you took gone? What have all that email forwarding of the words of known Islamic clerics taught you? What have all that email advice of reminding me to always go to the mosque, to pray faithfully on time, to say prayers before to bed done to you? What becomes of the list of Islamic book titles written by pious writers that you urged me to read and live my life by? Where in the hell is your love for your religion? Why are you not responding?

And to think I have deep esteem for those headscarf-wearing girls that I know of?

Where have all the tudung-wearing Muslim students gone? Are you dumb, deaf and blind? Where is your voice? And you stand still while somebody hits in the head? Are you not aware of what people are wrongly thinking about you and the fashion that you choose? Who is with me to defend what my mom takes pride in practicing? Do I have to raise my voice and lift my arm myself to defend your rights, your decisions? Am I to fulfill your very own responsibilities to God? Your own duties?

Okay, that’s it. Your insensitivity even to your own faith is telling me clearly what your stand is on the issue. If you don’t give a shit, then I don’t give a shit. Then, we can all go burn in hell, like a pair of lovers, happily ever after.