Advantages of Not Reading a News Paper

“Shop selling offensive T-shirts referred to panel” screams the headline of a local news item recently published in the Gulf News (a popular daily news paper in the United Arab Emirates). (http://archive.gulfnews.com/articles/07/08/17/10147241.html )
The news report says that a good humored vendor put on sale a bunch of T-shirts with the name “God” emblazoned on it. This is a sacrilegious crime in this part of the world. Some residents complained to the authorities about the serious offence and inspectors seized all material from the shop and probably closed it forever. The vendor may say in court that he has the permission of God to do so, or even He ordered him to do so in a dream or something like that. But I do not think that will be a sufficient argument. According to common belief, God has stopped preaching to humans centuries ago. Perhaps, He wisely understood that there is no point in doing that.

Another recent news item from India describes the attack on a Bangladeshi writer currently in exile in India. She is issued a "death warrant" if she did not pack her bags and leave India. "Anybody eliminating her would be given Rs100,000 (Dh8,333) and unlimited rewards if she does not leave the country immediately. Her crime - “she has insulted a particular group of people and continued to create problems in this country," as told to a news agency by its top spokesperson. He did not specify what the unlimited rewards are (http://archive.gulfnews.com/articles/07/08/18/10147431.html ).

One good thing about such nice people is that none of them reads tabloids like Weekend Review that comes with Gulf News every Friday. For example, Weekend Review carries a list of best seller books and a very interesting book is on that list for the past thirteen or so weeks. I cannot find a link to that page, but the book in question is listed currently at No. 3. Even though, it is the name of a book, it is a bold statement that the Weekend Review carries every week. To me it is a greater offence than the one attributed to recent cartoon controversy. Let us see how long the fun will last. Meanwhile, congratulations to the editorial team of Gulf News for their bravery.