Hmm. Okay.

So Gabe just forwarded me 2 somewhat amusing emails (he called them fanmail. blah.). Anyway, I'll try to answer them one by one, so yeah.

Before we start, we should begin with the part about how I'm not Gabriel, ok? I've got a guest account to post as a contributor here, but we're two different seperate people. So do remember that "Char" is not a synonym, acronym, or whatever-nym for "Agagooga/Gabriel/GSSQ".

Ok, now let's get onto the fun stuff.

Email 1:

~~~~~~~~~~

LoLz :D You the guy who nearly ended up in the slammer. Serves you right you liberalist anti-christian illegitimate son. You should have got much more. mmmmm.....like hanging mebbe or worse.....well I'll leave that to the s'pore authorities. Did you really expect christians to turn their other cheek? What a naive stupid son of a female dog you must be. Damn They must have got your raw hide 4 insulting jesus.

~~~~~~~~~~

Let's see. Technically, I was thrown inside the "slammer" for like 3 hours plus. So the "almost bit is kinda moot, isn't it? As for the liberalist anti-christian illegitimate son... well... I never said I was anti-christian; just anti-fundamentalist. Youre just misinterpreting it for the sake ofmisinterpreting it. Or maybe it's just what the local media has been feeding you, non?

As for the hanging bit, I'm sure it'd work. Perhaps something more medieval, like torture devices used in the inquisition would be more to your taste, perhaps, considering you do seem to be the fanatical, let-me-rape-kill-torture-and-steal-in-God's-name maniac, don't you think? =)

Sigh. Whatever happenned to the sixth commandment? Or perhaps the devil quoteth scripture here, and points you to Exodus 20:7 - "Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain."

and

"Why do you observe the splinter in you brother's eye and never notice the plank in your own? How dare you say to your brother, 'Let me take the splinter out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own? Hypocrite! Take the plank out of your own eye first, and then you will see clearly enough to take the splinter out of your brother's eye."- Matthew 7:3-5 / Luke6:42

Besides, let's put it this way, sending a personal misguided attack to the wrong person, calling me a naive son-of-a-bitch, using the word "Damn", without knowing the exact religious implications of it, just shows how far matured you are in your own religion. Interesting. I'd wager you'd be laughing your head off while I'm burning in hell.

(Gabriel insisted that I put his comments after every email, so here it is: "If this person is Christian, as he most probably is, this email illustrates why Char posted the cartoons in the first place.")

Email 2:

~~~~~~~~~~

Hello Gabriel. I just wanted to send you a note regarding your blog that was published in the June 27th.

I see that you have had a bad experience from this 'FundieP' character. I am hoping that whatever this person has done to you has not turned you against Jesus or caused you to be 'de-converted'. My only request is that you ignore people for a moment and just focus on the Truth. One of the main problems with religions these days is that anyone interprets anything as they wish and then try to put that on other people. Well, we are ALL sinners, so it's never going to be perfect with any believer or non-believer. We are all going to say or do something completely stupid at times and hopefully ask for forgiveness for that later. I ask that you take all of this to Christ, and see what HE has to say about it. Ask that He give you the answers you need. I believe that if you truly seek those answers, they will come to you. I will pray for you as well. Whatever happens, I wish you the best.

~~~~~~~~~~

Okaaaay. Another evangelistical "give a helping hand to a person when he's down, and hopefully we can convert him while we're at it" case.

Again, my re-iteration. I loathe fundamentalists. And I'm unafraid to spout my views on that. I'm fine with Christians in general, having personal Christian friends, and even a confidante who's a priest in the Roman Catholic Archdiose in Singapore. I'm fine with religion as long as it doesn't affect me. What I'm not fine with, are people who perverse their belief in their religion to cloud out their own sense of reason, to fufil and justify their own selfish and personal agendas.

As for "Truth", let me then ask, as Pilate did in John 18:38; "What is truth?" Because we all have our own truths we believe in. I didn't leave the Church, and Christianity, because of FundieP's actions, but because I did over 2 years of searching, watching people I knew and cared about die in front of me, and found my answers elsewhere. (Although on a side note, the type of people in the church, of which FundieP belonged to, was one of the many reasons I did renounce Christianity. But there are black sheep in all religions anyway.)

That said, I thank you for your mild "interest" in this case, and trust me, if I'm ever re-converted (although I doubt it), perhaps you might have a better place in heaven, or something like that. And yeps, I wish you all the best too in that endeavour.

By the way, I particularly love this quote of yours; "One of the main problems with religions these days is that anyone interprets anything as they wish and then try to put that on other people. " - is it only me who notices the delicious irony in this statement, considering you are trying to put your views on Christianity on me?

(Gabriel commenteth: "My eyes were opened. I saw the light. The truth set me free.")

It's over, got a police warning. Not going to be charged in court. End of story. Somewhat. I probably might be going back to blogging, but well, it'll be a while. A pretty long while. Till then, I guess.

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Divided views over police checks on blogger

Religious leaders and social observers interviewed believe the law has a role to play in teaching people about the need to balance the right to free expression with the need to respect another's faith.

'The right to free speech stops when it begins to hurt the religious sensitivities of others,' said Father John-Paul Tan, parish priest of the Church of St Mary of the Angels in Bukit Batok.

'That's when sometimes the law needs to come in to educate people.'...

One compared Char's action to a newspaper reproducing seditious remarks or offensive cartoons, noting that the law treats such an action as seriously as creating the content.

Law professor Thio Li-Ann from the National University of Singapore said that in investigating the matter, the Government was being even-handed and recognising respect for religious faiths as a key principle here.

She added: 'Given that 80 per cent of Singaporeans subscribe to some kind of religious faith, it is not conducive to denigrate any faith.'

Supporting the use of law, Anglican Bishop John Chew noted that disrespect of any religion or religious figure could result in ill will...

Agreeing, chairman of the Centre for Contemporary Islamic Studies Ridzuan Wu called for society to take a consistent position when any religious figure is mocked.

'Muslims feel it is offensive to deride the Prophet, and it is offensive to do so to Jesus Christ and other religious figures,' he said...

There were several netizens who also backed tough action. One was a Muslim American management lecturer based here, known online as 'JD'.

Said the 44-year-old: 'I support Singapore's use of the Sedition Act. People shouldn't have to put up with derogatory comments and cartoons that blaspheme their faiths.'

***

I guess it's time to:

- Ban the Da Vinci Code
- Unban the Jehovah's Witnesses and the Unification Church
- Stop condemning suicide bombers and religious extremists because we can't denigrate their faith
- Stop Christians condemning "false" Christians since it denigrates their faiths
- Report pastors/priests who preach at funerals and say non-Christians are fools, dommed and condemned to burn in hell
- Report people who say that "all gods are the same"
- Ban crucifixes worn by non-Christians
- Ban the swear word "Christ" or similar derivations, since this is taking the name of god in vain and offensive to Christians
- Ban books exposing Scientology
- Start reporting your neighbors and enemies for Sedition, making police reports at the drop of a hat (or for the slightest non-religious grudge) since if you "must [feel] very strongly about the issue", the police will "investigate"
- cut ties with Israel since this offends some Muslims
- Ban the teaching of Evolution in schools since it offends fundamentalist Christians
- Since evolution is termed as a 'Faith', even religion by its opponents, have Evolutionists cry 'Sedition!' at attempts to demonise their credo
- Take after the UK, where Christians were going to tape Muslim sermons and Muslims Christian ones so they could look for material in them to report each other
- Emigrate

Remember kids, Jesus was crucified for offending the Jewish religion!

I saw a movie poster in London which read: "Muhammad - the Last Prophet". MUIS would no doubt condemn this, since it implies that all other prophets who came after him are false, and this denigrates other people's faiths.

Consistency is the name of the game!

char responds to the newspaper article on him:


Singapore's Sedition Act, part deux?

Hi Zakir,

Congragulations on your article making the front page of Tuesday's
newspaper. I'm certain that "Blogger who posted cartoons of Christ
online being investigated." was a lot more eye catching a headline and
interesting a storyboard compared to "People left in limbo by police
cases", where you quoted me issues such as the Martin See episode,
whereby his recording equipment is still being held by the police
"pending investigation", in order to get me to agree to your interview
last Thursday evening.

It's no wonder your story did make the headlines, and no wonder the ST
is still the most read broadsheet newspaper in Singapore.

Anyway, here's to clarify a couple of points which probably ended up
being edited out in the rush for your story going to print; I will be
referring to your original article hereon in.

(I hope that you don't mind that I've included some friends, bloggers,
and the foreign media, of whom are included within the bcc list; so
that they'd get the story as well. I'm sure they would be interested
to know how I'm doing, as well as what's happenning. Of course, they
are very much free and welcome to reproduce and use the contents of
this email.)

----------

>June 14, 2006
Blogger who posted cartoons of Christ online being investigated
>By Zakir Hussain

>A 21-YEAR-OLD accounts assistant is being investigated for allegedly
flouting the Sedition Act by publishing pictures on his blog that were
thought to depict Jesus Christ in an offensive manner.

>The blogger, who used the online moniker Char, had found the cartoons
on the Internet and began posting them in January.

[While there is no real issue in this point, it did make it sould like
I posted more than four pictures, and was posting them regularly too.]

>He told The Straits Times last week that he was called in by the
police for questioning in March, after they received a complaint.

[Yes, I was called in by the police for questioning. However, I
believe that you failed to note that the complainent had prior
dealings with me before, after I implied on a forum that he was a
fundamentalist Christian bigot, and that I believed that he had
personal issues with my implied insult.]

>Yesterday, the police confirmed they are investigating the matter but
declined to give details as 'investigations are still ongoing'.

[No issue with that, as I do believe that investigations are still
ongoing three and a half months after my computers were siezed, when
you mentioned to me that for the first 3 sedition cases, the parties
involved were brought to court and sentenced within two months.]

>News of the investigation was announced online by Char himself last
week when he sent an e-mail to a mailing list of more than 300 young
Singaporeans. He told them of his experience and how it came about. He
removed the cartoons from his blog after he was questioned.

[Technically, I removed the pictures, then subsequently deleted the
blog, on advice of the investigating officer, as the pictures there
might "agitate others". My original email on the 7th of June is
replicated at:
http://gssq.blogspot.com/2006/06/story-friend-of-mine-told-me-while.html]

>When contacted by The Straits Times, Char asked that he not be
identified for he fears he may lose his job, which he wants to keep
before entering a local university in August.

>Describing himself as a free thinker, he said he had posted a cartoon
that depicted Jesus as a zombie biting a boy's head in January.

[Technically, I'm an ex-christian-turned-deist/free thinker.]

>The following month, he received an online message asking him to
remove the image. It came amid the global furore over the publication
of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad by several newspapers.

>Char did not reply to the message but chose to irk the person
instead. He searched the Internet for more pictures depicting Jesus
and published three of them on his blog.

[Interesting that by not revealing what exactly I posted after the
Jesus zombie picture, it made it seem that my followups were even more
offensive, so much so, that they had to be obscured. Perhaps you
remember the description of police annexes B, C, and D, right? You did
have the printout of the original email when I met you. But
respectively, they are: licenceplateworld.com - picture of
licenceplate saying "Jesus loves you, everyone else thinks you're an
asshole"; somethingawful.com, photoshop phriday "sensational news
stories" - fake CNN image of Jesus on paper
(http://www.somethingawful.com/index.php?a=3193&p=9) - third picture;
and somethingawful.com, photoshop phriday, "the biggest movie of the
year" - edited photo of Last Temptation of Christ, with Jesus looking
at a KFC bucket (http://www.somethingawful.com/index.php?a=2995&p=5) -
first picture.]

>Looking back, he felt he made an 'unwise' move. 'I never thought
anyone would complain to the police because the pictures were not
insidious,' he said.

----------

I do have to include a point that a friend noted; that it would be
interesting to know what exactly IS offensive enough to threaten the
population. Otherwise, unchecked, this leads not to preservation of
harmony, but the creation of a frivolously litigious society. Or even
worse, a frivolous litigation via police proxy society.


Addendum:

This post has been linked by mediawatchwatch.org.uk » Zombie trouble in Singapore and Два.ч — Общие рассуждения (some Russian site), which both have copies of the original Zombie cartoon.

Example picture of the Licenseplate

A story a friend of mine told me a while back but has just decided to make more public.

Low crime doesn't mean no crime! I applaud our police for their efforts to keep our streets safe.


Okay, most of you know that in a couple of my recent mails, I've been hinting strongly about something about me having a few choice words the sedition act.

Well, here's the catch. I've been arrested, dumped in cantoment's lockup for three and a half hours, had my statement taken twice, and let out on a 10k bail - it's lapsed since then, so I'm no longer on bail. Anyway, the investigation is still "ongoing", with my computer and laptop having been siezed "for investigation".

The backstory?

Here goes: Three months back (today's the third month anniversary of my case. whee.), I kind of made an enemy online, thanks to a little flaming session. Back then, it was the height of the Jyllands-Posten/Muhammed pictures issue, and following some moronic arguements of his (We'll call this guy FundieP) on Christianity against someone else, I couldn't help but step in, and pretty much publicly humiliated him.

Dumb thing however, was that FundieP knew of my blog, thanks to a sigining off signature generated automatically. And being the fundamentalist Christian he was, he sent me a mail, requesting that an earlier cartoon I had on the blog be removed. [Police annex A, taken from hamncheez.com - cartoon of a zombie version of Jesus biting on a little boy's head. Boy is asking "why is my messiah trying to eat my brain?" and line below says "on the third day, Jesus rose from his tomb"]

Well, to those who know me, I'm strongly anti-fundamentalist, so I dumbly didn't reply to that mail, and instead went to search for a couple more pictures to agitate FundieP. Bad idea. [Police annex B, C, D respectively: licenceplateworld.com - picture of licenceplate saying "jesus loves you, everyone else thinks you're an asshole"; somethingawful.com - fake CNN image of Jesus on paper; and somethingawful.com - edited photo of Last Temptation of Christ, with Jesus looking at a KFC bucket.]

Well, FundieP made a police report. About 2 weeks later, I had the police knocking, got my computer siezed, was arrested and dumped into hotel Cantoment for 3.5 hours, and let out on bail for breaching 4(1)(c)-290 - our beloved sedition act.

[4. —(1) Any person who — (c) prints, publishes, sells, offers for sale, distributes or reproduces any seditious publication; shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction for a first offence to a fine not exceeding $5,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 3 years or to both, and, for a subsequent offence, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 5 years; and any seditious publication found in the possession of that person or used in evidence at his trial shall be forfeited and may be destroyed or otherwise disposed of as the court directs.]

6 days before I was due for a three and a half week US trip.

I was pretty much a nervous wreck those few days, I eventually went, although it took 2 of my best friends (and an insanely high US phone bill) to convince me that I would need the trip - my passport wasn't impounded, and the police extended the bail to 4 weeks to let me fly, although I almost wanted to call the flight off.

Switch back to present, and well, I've told the story to only a select few so far, but to be honest (and to sound stupid), I never actually decided to read the entire Sedition Act till today, after 3 months. Sure, I read the earlier portions (about section 1-5, but not the later portion. Yes, berate me on my stupidity, but I was seriously freaked out for that long to not notice article 6.

[Evidence. 6. Cap. 97. (2) No person shall be convicted of any offence referred to in section 4(1)(c) if such person proves that...he did not know and had no reason to believe that the publication had a seditious tendency.]

and, linking back,

[Seditious tendency. 3. —(1) A seditious tendency is a tendency — (e) to promote feelings of ill-will and hostility between different races or classes of the population of Singapore.]

While Malays and Islam are interwined, it would take a long shot to link Christianity as a dividing issue between races or classes of the population of Singapore.

For an additional note, the Da Vinci Code would be probably be more seditious, if one goes by the severity of the "evidence" - mildly put, it virtually criminalises Christianity as a conspiracy, and that Christianity itself is illicit (Of course, all monotheist religions claim that all other religions are illicit anyway), plus, its publicity is about a few hundred times more (now showing?) than my now-defunct blog.

(anyway, I called the police today to ask on the case, as well as my computer, and the investigating officer sounded pretty miffed, just telling me that the case was still "under investigation")

Charlotte's anti-fundie meme (Or something to that extent)

"Venue: Outside Eng Wah Cinemas / The Rock @ Suntec City
Time: 1030 am
Date: Sep 11, 2005

Requirements:
Participants should bring along a book that promotes freethought, or ones with a similar spirit as those in the list below, and read it outside Eng Wah cinemas at the time above. They may also have to join the queue.

Only atheists, apostates, and people with a death wish of being beaten half to death by New Creationists screaming "Hallelujah!", "Die, heathen scum!" and "God is good!" amidst a hail of "amens" / so-called tongues need apply.

Note: Participants will not be required to actively de-convert / counter-evangelise, only to read their books peaceably and reply if challenged or preached to.

Recommended readings:
Why I am not a Christian - Bertrand Russell
Candide - Voltaire
Age of Reason - Tom Paine
The Last Temptation of Christ - Martin Scorsese
Atheism: The Case Against God - George H. Smith

Sign up today!"

To add on to her disclaimer: Neither Balderdash nor Insaintly Yours condone stirring up religious violence. This post is not meant to be taken seriously. We are not responsible for any loss of life, limb, or extremities, should you attempt to carry out any of the aforementioned actions

And yes, I'll be there, since I haven't seen Charlotte for a while. For all you Charlotte fans out there, she says she might be there "depending on her schedule", so it's a rare chance to meet her instead of stalking her from afar.