Daily Times

I have stood up for every race, ethnicity, culture and religion, and this time I am standing up for Muslim sensitivities to ban the bikini at the Miss World Pageant in Indonesia to be held on September 28, in Jakarta, Indonesia. We have to stand up for up for everyone’s right to be who they are and who they want to be.

Of course, this is fodder for the Islamophobes to cash in on, hyping up the situation that radical Muslims are gaining control in every sphere of life, and that they will take over the world. My fellow Americans like Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer will squeeze every penny out of their nincompoop supporters. The more they frighten, the more donations will roll in; frightening Americans is their business.

I am thankful to Fox News and Greg Gutfeld to take me on the O’Reilly show to share my perspective. The show was broadcast between 8:00 and 9:00 pm EST on Friday, June 7, 2013. Most of my talking points made it in the show but a few critical ones did not and they are here below.

The bikini ban did not happen overnight, it was a part of the year-long negotiated business transaction between the organisers of Miss World and the Indonesian cultural and tourism authority. One of the great American values is to respect the sensitivities of other people. What is good for the goose has got be good for the gander. Dale Carnegie had perfect words for this situation: “If you want to gather the honey, don’t kick the beehive.”

If we can learn to respect the otherness of others, and accept the God-given uniqueness of each one of us, then conflicts fade and solutions emerge. That is exactly what the Miss World pageant did; they agreed to respect the Indonesian culture, predominantly Muslim, to address their concerns. When in Rome, do as the Romans do.

“All of the more than 130 contestants will be required to wear Bali’s traditional long sarongs instead of the sexy bikinis that are historically part of the competition,” said Adjie S Soeratmadjie of the RCTI, the official broadcaster and local organiser.

In fact, the chairwoman of the Miss World Organisation, Julia Morley said, “Indonesia is designing for us a very beautiful one-piece beachwear, and I’m very happy with them,” she told Associated Press by phone from London, adding that the pageant will include a special beachwear fashion show.

In America we call it lobbying and bribe the decision makers in one form or the other to get the job done. The Indonesian garment industry probably was looking to promote their version of the bikini in the world market through the pageant. As Americans, we are open to most things, but we have our own problems. We have protested against the sinful ugly war. Muslim protests against the bikini, so what? Aren’t we sensitive to the needs of our business? Would a traditional Jewish family eat in a restaurant where the meat is not kosher? If the restaurant is predominantly in a Jewish community or Muslim community, it is in their business interest to serve kosher/halal meat, is it not?

So what if we are sensitive to the needs of Muslims in a predominantly Muslim community? Why should we push our ways onto them? Do they push their ways onto us? We should be proud of the demonstrators. It is a healthy sign of democracy; if the Republicans do not protest, President Obama will get away with many things. Protesting is the democratic thing to do, and we must appreciate it.

Forget the Jews, Muslims and Hindus; would you and I eat dog meat if that is served in a restaurant? Did we not protest horse meat in burgers? Hindus protested about the beef ingredient in French fries as well. What about McRib by McDonalds? What did Jack in the Box and McDonald’s do? They did not appease anyone; they did what was right for their business, just as the Miss World Pageant did to protect their business.

Why do we need to annoy people? What is our gain? We need to be sensitive to the needs of the culture we operate in. Opposing wearing of a bikini is not necessarily a Muslim thing to do; it is indeed a cultural thing. Hindus have done it, Muslims have done it and Christians have done it. In 1996, the pageant was marked by violent protests in India. Mind you, this was done by the predominantly Hindi culture. The event was culture-sensitive, the models danced to traditional Indian music and dance. There is the business angle; two billion people watched it. When Tebow knelt on the field, how many Christian Americans loved it? Bangalore was flooded by 10,000 paramilitary troopers, water hoses, sniffer dogs to protect the event from the protestors. Shashikala, leader of Mahila Jagran Samiti (Forum for Awakening Women), which had promised the immolation protest, remained at large, police reported. But an unemployed man in southern India died after setting himself ablaze in protest.

Lady Gaga and Jennifer Lopez had to mend their dance moves for the fear of riots; you cannot call this a Muslim thing either, the same things have happened everywhere in different parts of the world on different pretexts.

As far as Greg Gutfeld throwing in the London incident of hacking a soldier without giving me the time to respond, it was not the right thing to do. He should not have brought it up to begin with. Gutfeld’s fears are misdirected. If I was the police commissioner of the UK, I would have said this to the criminal, “Shut up you criminal, you violently hacked another being to death for no reason, I am going to book you, you can plead insanity, I may have that evaluated, but if you abuse your religion or Qur’an, I am not going to spare you. No Muslim organisation in the UK had authorized you, and neither did the Quran authorise you to murder another being. As a civil society, we know only one thing: you are a plain criminal, pleading religion is inadmissible, you are in for a long haul.”

Let the Muslims protest; it is their right to do so and we have to admire their freedom.

The writer is a speaker, thinker, who writes on pluralism, politics, peace, Islam, Israel, India, interfaith, and cohesion at the workplace. He is committed to building a Cohesive America and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day at www.TheGhousediary.com. He is an activist who has a presence on national and local TV, Radio and print media. He is a frequent guest on Sean Hannity show on Fox TV, and a commentator on national radio networks; a weekly contributor to the Texas Faith Column in the Dallas Morning News; fortnightly at Huffington Post, and several other periodicals across the world. His personal site www.MikeGhouse.net indexes his work through many links