On the recent Badu and tattoo thang.

I can’t help but write about the recent Erykah Badu tattoo and concert cancellation issue.

I usually refrain myself from writing about this kind of issues, I am afraid that it would turn into a lengthy and never ending discussion. And I gotta admit that I am afraid that people would take me wrongly too.

But heck, I think I want to speak up my mind.

First of all, apparently the tattoo that she bore was actually a body painting (actually I can tell at the first glance).

Second of all, she is a Non-Muslim who does not know any better. That is the problem with arts. It is too abstract and subjective. You never know who you are offending, especially if you chose to be ignorant. And with that, people tend to use arts as an excuse. To me, yes you can do arts, but you just can’t be ignorant. You just need to know your limits and learn to show some respect, so that you deserve some too. There is no such thing as a misunderstood art. I do not believe that art should supersede any faith or principles.

Third, obviously she has learned her lesson, as what she had tweeted below:


To be honest I am not so enraged by what Erykah did. Because she just DID NOT KNOW ANY BETTER.


I am more enraged about the terrible things we see in our own society, in a country where we are always proud to say is an Islamic country. I am more enraged because WE KNOW BETTER.

We see cases like infanticide, khurafat (do you know that people still go to black magic nowadays? Nauzubillah) , bribery, hatred, fitnah, happening in our own society. Do not get me started with our own entertainment industry. We pompously give rules on decency to foreign artists who come to our country, but at the same time it seems like we are closing our eyes to our own locale artists who sometimes just don’t even bother to portray decency at all.

Isn’t it fair enough if we start making noise to make amends in our own society, just like we made noise about what Erykah did?

Take a close look at our own mistakes now, I think it is time that we start “muhasabah diri” and try to portray a better Islamic society who should know better, before we start punishing those who knows less. Non-Muslims who do not mean any harm, especially.

I asked a fellow blogger, ShaElaiza on her opinion on the issue, as I believe that she has the skills and knowledge to explain exactly what I had in mind. And she actually did! Yes, she is that good.

Check out her writings about it here and about how we should treat less-knowing Non-Muslims here.

Now that Erykah has learned her lesson (too bad it had to be the hard way), let us forgive and then move on to improve our own Muslim self.

Insha Allah.

Comments

Popular Posts