It’s true, baby. Sometimes in their zealousness to “do the right thing” the political correctness people get a bit carried away. Recently, popular Australian TV show, “The Ronnie Johns Half Hour Goodtime Jamboree Variety Show (now in colour)” made a sketch called “High 5 A Muslim day!” featuring a Jesus Christ impersonator imploring people to join in High 5 A Muslim Day where folks give some “Slappy” to Muslims to bring harmony.

Heavens! This shocked Channel 10 quite a bit, considering the Current Cartoon Crisis, and they pulled the segment for fear it might offend Muslims.

So the producers decided to prove the show wasnt offensive and ran it past the Mufti of Australia, Taj Aldin Alhilali, for an expert opinion.

And an opinion they got! The crew recieved a FATWA in the mail!

Den den DENNNNNNN….

Of course a Fatwa is not what most people think it is. A Fatwa is just a religious ruling, like what a court would make, on a topic.

And the verdict: Hi-larious! The Mufty and his crew thought it was a great skit that promoted religious tolerance.

Heres the ruling;-

Dear Producers

Religious Ruling (Fatwah)

We have analysed the High Five Comedy Skit for the Ronnie Johns Half Hour.

Whilst Islam does not condone any imagary in relation to messengers of God, we do recognise and respect the usage by the Christian Church of crucifixes and images of Christ. In this regard our ruling does not relate to the person of Christ or the representation of Christ whom we respect, honour and revere as a great messenger of God. This ruling relates to the concept of the skit and to the references to Muslims therein. It may be appropriate to ask representatives of Christianity for their view in relation to the depiction of Jesus Christ. We do acknowledge that Jesus is rightly depicted as calling for interreligious respect and friendship and this positive role has impacted on our decision to issue this fatwa.

I confirm that the idea behind the skit is constructive and helps promote understanding amongst different sections of Australian society.

It would be great if Australians, Muslims and non Muslims were to exchange friendly greetings. Such understanding and good humour, introduced through satire is very beneficial for Australian society. On this basis the message of the skit and the references to Islam and Muslims are appreciated and are seen as positive and helpful for improved relations.

Yours sincerely
Signed
Taj Aldin Alhilali
Mufty of Australia

And the show will now be aired!

But here’s a link, posted by the producers themselves, so you can see it right now.

So what’s the moral of this story, children? Think back to just before Christmas for the hysterical stories about how those Muslims didn’t want people to celebrate Christmas in Australia because it was supposedly offensive.

The not-so-hidden message? “Muslims want to take away our lifestyle.”

Of course nothing could be further from the truth. Muslims see our homie JC as a messenger from god, second perhaps in importance to Muhammed. And although Muslims in general don’t celebrate Christmas, they do recognise that it’s an important community celebration of a holy person in both Christianity and Islam.

Unfortunately the effect of this meme was that people became unhappy with this percieved threat and started fearing muslims and their role in Australian society. Yet muslims were blameless for the debacle. It was something which was stoked by well meaning but misguided members of society who cancelled celebrations due to fears of upsetting Muslim people.

The parallel is clear here. Channel 10 feared upsetting the Muslim community and pulled the episode, and while the motivations are perhaps to be commended on some level, it seems they were misinformed about Muslims and Muslim values.

Turns out Muslims have a sense of humor too. Think about it.

Update: Crikey covers this also.