Reply: Miniskirts and myopia; is the government barking mad?

by Asoka Weerasooriya

Our contact email: feed@srilankaguardian.org 

(January 06, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) I refer to the above titled article carried in the Sri Lanka Guardian web site today (January 05).

While respecting and holding in high esteem your independent stand on Sri Lankan affairs, I regret to note that the tone of some of your articles go beyond freedom of expression into hurting religious sentiments perhaps in the name of so called 'freedom of the ass".

Ms Pearl Thevanayagam has chosen to pen an article on a very relevant theme that of the proposed 'culture police' but unfortunately she veers into unwanted and uncalled-for territory with her tasteless remarks on Buddha and Jesus Christ. As a practicing Christian, her article carried by you hurts my religious sentiments when she says rather crudely " Jesus had much forethought. He refused to get married and was happy going his merry way with his 12 apostles and occasionally consorting with the opposite sex aka Mary Magdalene, a well known prostitute, without the cumbersome ties of a marriage. He had heard more than enough of his humble birth in a manger surrounded by filthy donkeys and cows and freezing cold weather which his ma endured and it put him off marriage for a lifetime. "

Firstly as a practicing Christian and secondly as a practicing lawyer, I, along with the rest of Christians numbering over 2.1billion (38% of the world's population) find Ms Thevanayagam's remarks unwanted and in violation of my religious beliefs. Ms Thevanayagam probably wants to be accepted to the Liberal camp when she plays around with what 38% of the world holds sacred including a good percentage of her compatriot Tamils, but to me, it is sheer idiocy to use such language to describe the deity of Jesus who is even respected and looked up to by seculars as a world figure worth emulating. Perhaps Ms Thevanayagam feels she must better the dry and acid tongued sections of the British media by restoring to such badly written scum that purposely hurt religious sentiments. Ms Thevanayagam also seems to be biased against marriage, sacred in God's eyes and vital for the survival of society, perhaps for reasons best known to her. As you may know, it is bad journalism to bring personal bias into one's writing as this lady seems to have done.

However, Ms Thevanayagam has conveniently forgotten or left out referring to the Kama Sutras and the obviously sexual references found rather often and openly in Hinduism which would have been rather relevant to her dry- but-in- poor-form and badly written article that unfortunately would not pass the Anglo Saxon standards of Fleet Street journalism, even though she writes as an 'exiled' (self-exiled?) journalist.

Ms Thevanayagam should consider herself lucky that Christians do not issue fatwas for insulting Jesus. If she had insulted Prophet Mohomed in this manner, I am certain that her fellow Moslem citizens of Britain would not hesitate to issue one.

It would seem to me that Ms Thevanayagam suffers from some deeply personal wounds that have damaged her capacity to think and write rationally - her style of writing and commenting also indicates a deeply biased attitude towards the land I assume is that of her birth, Sri Lanka. As a Christian once again, I forgive her and ask Jesus Christ to grant her His peace that goes beyond human understanding.

However, given the poor form of the article and the sentiments it evokes deliberately using rather damaging words to purposefully hurt religious sentiment, I would like to request Sri Lanka Guardian to carry an apology as a fitting response. After all, if you seek to sustain international standards in free and independent journalism, you would not hesitate to do so.

I look forward to a response from you before I take this issue to the British Government and it's relevant authorities.