One scholar
has said, “But you know, I’m not sure if the type of response that we have seen
as of late, regarding depictions of the Prophet has to do with the depictions
themselves or whether it’s about the negative depictions. My hunch is that it
has a lot more to do with the negativity associated with the depictions and the
message that they’re sending as opposed to the actual depiction itself. Let’s
say for the sake of argument that somebody drew a picture that they said was
the Prophet Muhammad, and it was actually very positive, and there was no
malicious intent behind it and it was actually conveying a positive message; I
find it hard to think that there would be the same type outcry.” -- Imam
Sikander Hashmi
So although
modern Christians wouldn’t be upset with depictions of Christ, people surely
were very upset in the past when artists portrayed important Christian figures
in negative ways (Piss Christ, for example).
Christianity has a long history of enforcing respect for the prophets or
saints with violence. I think we are a
little hypocritical for judging the Muslims for taking depictions of the
prophet Mohammed so seriously.
So how can
we be respectful of people who take their religion seriously while protecting
everyone else? It’s a big question and I
don’t have the answer. I don’t think it’s
a good idea to tell the satirists of the world that they can’t depict any Islamic
prophet in a negative light, especially if they are in a country where the
majority of people are not Muslims, and aren’t offended by the depictions. But at the same time, there are certainly
other subjects for images that are not acceptable in western society. You can’t get away with showing Jewish folks
in a caricature like they were depicted before WWII; you can’t depict racist
stereotypes of African-Americans or Native Americans without suffering serious
backlash.
Maybe that’s
a solution. Don’t legislate what is
acceptable speech, but expect there to be consequences when media goes too
far. The issue with depictions of
Mohammed is that not enough people would reject an organization that published
negative images of Islam because of the world we live in and the perception of
the people and the religion. Many people
I think are happy to try to provoke Muslims so they can feel superior about how
they are getting all worked up over nothing.
Let me know
what you think. It’s important to
discuss this topic until we get somewhere, I think.