[lit-ideas] Re: cartoons of the prophet of Islam
- From: Austin Meredith <Kouroo@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 06 Feb 2006 06:19:15 -0500
Why does the Media persistently make the same claim (e.g. BBC says, "Any
images of the Prophet are banned under Islamic tradition.", CNN says
essentially
the same thing, etc.), when it simply does not seem to be accurate
Perhaps this will help. There are vast differences between religious
traditions within Islam, such as Sunni Islam versus Shia Islam. In the more
strict traditions, any image of any living thing is forbidden, because only
God creates life. Thus, on a Sunni carpet one would not see the sorts of
images of flowers and deer and such, that would be woven into a Shia
carpet. Instead one would see, woven into the carpet, mere geometric
shapes, and calligraphy. Even the Shia, however, balk at representations of
the prophet of Islam himself. I have seen, for instance, comic books in
Iran having to do with the story of Ali, in which the faces of various
persons appear -- but the face of Ali is represented under his turban by an
utterly blank space in the cartoon. The figure is identified by the absence
of a representation, and by his sword with its unique double point. It
would have been considered disrespectful to have attempted an image of the
face of Ali, because he was so close to Mohammad.
Is this so strange? For many years, in the USA, it has been tacitly
understood by the news media that one does not publish a photo of a
President who is forking a bite of food into his mouth. This is considered
a courtesy toward one to whom one owes respect.
------------------------------------------------------------------
To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off,
digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html
Other related posts:
