Multiple Lokmat offices in Maharashtra were attacked for the Sunday edition of the newspaper that featured a cartoon to which a few Muslims took offense.
The ‘blasphemous’ cartoon was put up in Lokmat’s supplement, Manthan.
The article which was named ‘ISIS cha paisa’ (ISIS’ money) had this image accompanying it, that enraged the Muslim community.
The ISIS flag has writings on two places. The writing on the top means “There is no god but Allah” and the writing on the bottom in the white circle means “Mohammed is the messenger of God”.
The fact that “Mohammed is the messenger of God” was written on a black piggy bank, depicting a pig was found offensive by the Muslim community that considers pig as ‘haraam’ or unclean.
An FIR was filed against the newspaper and the editor and security was increased at all offices of Lokmat after all the protests.
Many people expressed their views on the situation via Twitter:
As a Muslim, I’m far more upset that ISIS has the Shahada on its flag rather than #Lokmat putting the ISIS flag on a picture of piggy bank.
— Omair Ahmad (@OmairTAhmad) November 30, 2015
And the worst part is… #Lokmat apologised to #ISIS . Shame
— ❄PANKAJ ji™❄ (@Panksgr878) November 30, 2015
A piggy bank insults ISLAM but ISIS doesn’t? Why so biased reaction? Why can’t reaction be same with same intensity for ISIS too? #Lokmat
— PM (@PoojaMissra) November 30, 2015
what piggy bank has to do with islam? and u anyway believe isis has nothing to do with islam then why so hyper? #lokmat
— Rohan Shah (@ivcanula) November 30, 2015
Was it the right thing to do? What do you think?