Dear Zapiro,
Your use of our revered and beloved God, Lord Ganesha or Vinayaga in your cartoon does indeed amount to disrespect and complete disregard of our religious philosophies.
It seems while you may have been trying to associate with an ‘Indian’ connection in relation to the state of South African cricket authorities, you have failed to consider the sensitivities of the Hindu community.
The use of Lord Ganesha in this manner is demeaning, hurtful and ignorant.
Despite your intention to mock the cricket authorities you have really just mocked our religion.
Lord Ganesha represents our inclination towards the pursuit of spiritual knowledge and not money or captive, tied-up humans – in case there may be a misunderstanding.
His depiction and image is to be used for spiritual enlightenment and divine inspiration, not for cartoons about Indians.
Your mockery therefore is just degrading.
Your unwillingness to apologise is furthermore evident of the arrogance and ignorance of this pitiful mockery of our God.
While we all respect the freedom of speech and the ability to appreciate satire, you cannot use mockery without proper understanding and depiction of your metaphors.
Have some integrity and humility to apologise as you have offended and hurt us, even if you intended the cartoon to send out another message.
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