KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - Malaysia's government ordered a Tamil-language daily to immediately halt publication for a month Friday as punishment for printing an image of Jesus Christ holding a cigarette, an official with the newspaper said.

S.M. Periasamy, general manager of Makkal Osai, which caters to Malaysia's ethnic Indian minority, said his office received the directive by fax from the Internal Security Ministry.

"Of course we are shocked by this. My entire staff are all in tears. They will lose a month of income," Periasamy said, adding that the newspaper would abide by the order but plans to appeal the suspension.

Ministry officials in this Muslim-majority nation could not immediately be reached for comment.

The newspaper had said it published the photo by mistake Tuesday and carried a front-page apology Thursday.

Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said Thursday that the picture was hurtful and an insult to Christians. Kuala Lumpur archbishop, Murphy Pakiam, criticized the picture as a "desecration," but later accepted the newspaper's apology.


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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070824/ap_on_re_as/malaysia_jesus_picture;_ylt=Ar1AIIyGeNTAWV7vHeIBvt wDW7oF


I personally think it was a good decision.

I personally think it was a good decision.
The image might have been in bad taste, but the government should have no business deciding what a newspaper can and cannot print.

The image might have been in bad taste, but the government should have no business deciding what a newspaper can and cannot print.I agree, but at least they're being consistent -- they shut down another paper during the Mohammed cartoon fiasco:

http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/425822/659038

If a newspaper wants to print an insulting picture of Jesus that should be their right. Any reader who feels too insulted should simply stop buying and reading that newspaper.

The image might have been in bad taste, but the government should have no business deciding what a newspaper can and cannot print.

That's true. However, I think they were anticipating an outcry and made the decision to suspend the newspaper and to dissolve the outcry beforehand. Not to mention, racial and religious tensions are high in Malaysia. But once I think about it, the punishment was pretty excessive.

If the picture was published to incite violence and confrontation, I would agree with the decision.

If it was not posed as such, I would be ok with it. I have seen several cruel and vulgar images of Jesus depicted from several sources. It does not effect me (other than I may not agree with them or offer them any of my financial support). I have no idea what Jesus looked like anyway... any representation of his visage is just that... a representation. There is no biblical or theological reason that would make me consider this anything but "poor taste".

If the picture was published to incite violence and confrontation, I would agree with the decision.

That's why I feel they did it. In the end, it was done to prevent something horrific from happening.

If it was not posed as such, I would be ok with it. I have seen several cruel and vulgar images of Jesus depicted from several sources. It does not effect me (other than I may not agree with them or offer them any of my financial support). I have no idea what Jesus looked like anyway... any representation of his visage is just that... a representation. There is no biblical or theological reason that would make me consider this anything but "poor taste".

That was a nice post. I wouldn't riot over something like that too but I can't help but to get upset over it. Moreover, I think that's the response they want to get. However, I'm not going to march the streets and demand them to apologize. I'll most likely take the steps you've pointed out.

If it was to help violence from breaking out, I'm fine with that.

googs, if they left it up to us.... I think we could help smooth it all out.

Peace, my friend.

If it was to help violence from breaking out, I'm fine with that.

googs, if they left it up to us.... I think we could help smooth it all out.

Peace, my friend.

No doubt. :thumbs:

We really have no way of knowing if Jesus smoked or not. He was supposedly a wine bibber and he may have hit the occasional bong, who knows?
Perhaps he would have chuckled at the picture and said that any publicity was good publicity.
Or, he may have said something profound-like: "You people worry about the damdest things, two pages over was a story about people killing people and no one gave a crap." :drinktoth