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The permissibility of depictions of Muhammad, the founder of Islam, has long been a concern in Islam's history. Oral and written descriptions are readily accepted by all traditions of Islam, but there is disagreement about visual depictions.

The Qur'an does not explicitly forbid images of Muhammad, but there are a few hadith (supplemental traditions) which have explicitly prohibited Muslims from creating the visual depictions of figures under any circumstances. Most contemporary Sunni Muslims believe that visual depictions of the prophets generally should be prohibited, and they are particularly averse to visual representations of Muhammad. The key concern is that the use of images can encourage idolatry, where the image becomes more important than what it represents. In Islamic art, some visual depictions only show Muhammad with his face veiled, or symbolically represent him as a flame; other images, notably from Persia of the Ilkhanate, and those made under the Ottomans, show him fully.

Other Muslims have taken a more relaxed view. Most Shi'a scholars accept respectful depictions and use illustrations of Muhammad in books and architectural decoration, as have Sunnis at various points in the past. However, many Muslims who take a stricter view of the supplemental traditions, will sometimes challenge any depiction of Muhammad, including those created and published by non-Muslims.

Background

Some major religions have had times in their history when images of their religious figures were forbidden. In Judaism, one of the Ten Commandments forbade "graven images." In Byzantine Christianity during the period of Iconoclasm (8th century, and again during the 9th century) visual representations were forbidden, and only the Cross could be depicted in churches. Even in modern times, there are disputes within different groups of Protestant Christians about the appropriateness of having religious icons of saints. The concern generally boils down to the concept of whether or not the image is becoming more important than what is being represented. In Islam, although nothing in the Qu'ran explicitly bans images, there are some supplemental hadith which explicitly ban the drawing of images of any living creature; other hadith tolerate images, but never encourage them. Hence, visual depictions of Muhammad, or prophets such as Moses or Abraham, are avoided.

Depiction by Muslims

Verbal descriptions

In one of the earliest sources, Ibn Sa'd's Kitab al-Tabaqat al-Kabir, there are numerous verbal descriptions of Muhammad. One description sourced to Ali ibn Abi Talib is as follows:

The Apostle of Allah, may Allah bless him, is neither too short nor too tall. His hairs are neither curly nor straight, but a mixture of the two. He is a man of black hair and large skull. His complexion has a tinge of redness. His shoulder bones are broad and his palms and feet are fleshy. He has long al-masrubah which means hair growing from neck to navel. He is of long eye-lashes, close eye-brows, smooth and shining fore-head and long space between two shoulders. When he walks he walks inclining as if coming down from a height. I never saw a man like him before him or after him. .

Athar Husain gives a non-pictorial description of his appearance, dress, etc. in "The Message of Mohammad". According to Husain, Muhammad was a little taller than average, sturdily built and muscular. His fingers were long. His hair, which was long, had waves, and he had a thick beard, which had seventeen gray hairs at the time of his death. He had good teeth and spare cheeks, brownish black eyes. His complexion was fair and he was very handsome. He walked fast with firm gait. He always kept himself busy with something, did not speak unnecessarily, always spoke to the point and without verbosity, and did not behave in an emotional way. He usually wore a shirt, trousers, a sheet thrown round the sholders and a turban, all spotlessly clean, rarely wearing the fine clothes that had been presented to him. He wanted others to wear simple, but always clean, clothes.

Recent controversies

During the 2000s, controversies over depictions of Muhammad, both over recent caricatures or cartoons and over display of historical artwork, have received worldwide media attention, in particular the 2005 Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy.

In 2002, Italian police reported that they had disrupted a terrorist plot to destroy a church in Bologna, which contains a 15th century fresco depicting an image of Muhammad.

Cartoons

In 2005, a Danish newspaper published a set of editorial cartoons, many of which depicted Muhammad. In late 2005 and early 2006, Danish Muslim organizations ignited a controversy through public protests and by spreading knowledge of the publication of the cartoons. Western Muslims generally said that it was not simply the depiction of Muhammad that was offensive, but the implication that Muhammad was somehow a supporter of terrorism. On 12 February 2008 the Danish police arrested three men alleged to be involved in a plot to assassinate Kurt Westergaard, one of the cartoonists.

In 2006, the controversial American television program South Park, which had previously shown an image of Muhammad in the July 4, 2001 episode "Super Best Friends", attempted to satirize the Danish newspaper incident. In the episode "Cartoon Wars Part II", they intended to show Muhammad handing a salmon helmet to Peter Griffin, a character in the Fox animated television show Family Guy. However, Comedy Central, the parent company of South Park, rejected the scene, citing concerns of violent protests in the Islamic world. The creators of South Park reacted by instead satirizing Comedy Central's double standard for censorship, instead including a segment in which American president George W. Bush and Jesus defecate on the flag of the United States.

The Lars Vilks Muhammad drawings controversy began in July 2007 with a series of drawings by Swedish artist Lars Vilks which depicted Muhammad as a roundabout dog. Several art galleries in Sweden declined to show the drawings, citing security concerns and fear of violence. The controversy gained international attention after the Örebro-based regional newspaper Nerikes Allehanda published one of the drawings on August 18 to illustrate an editorial on self-censorship and freedom of religion. While several other leading Swedish newspapers had published the drawings already, this particular publication led to protests from Muslims in Sweden as well as official condemnations from several foreign governments including Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Egypt and Jordan, as well as by the inter-governmental Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC). The controversy occurred about one and a half year after the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy in Denmark in early 2006.

Another controversy emerged in September 2007 when Bangladeshi cartoonist Arifur Rahman was detained on suspicion of showing disrespect to Muhammad. The interim government confiscated copies of the Bengali-language Prothom Alo in which the drawings appeared. The cartoon consisted of a boy holding a cat conversing with an elderly man. The man asks the boy his name, and he replies "Babu". The older man chides him for not mentioning the name of the prophet Muhammad before his name. He then points to the cat and asks the boy what it is called, and the boy replies "Muhammad the cat". The cartoon caused a firestorm in Bangladesh, with militant Islamists demanding that Rahman be executed for blasphemy. A group of people torched copies of the paper and several Islamic groups protested, saying the drawings ridiculed Mohammad and his companions. They demanded "exemplary punishment" for the paper's editor and the cartoonist. Bangladesh, however, does not have a blasphemy law, although one had been demanded by the same extremist Islamic groups.

Sooreh Hera

In December 2007, controversy erupted in the Netherlands when Iranian artist Sooreh Hera exhibited photos of two Iranian gay men in a series of sexually provocative positions, wearing masks depicting Muhammad and his son-in-law Ali. The photo series was intended to highlight the hypocrisy the artist saw, of Muslim married men engaging in sexual relations with other men. The Hague Municipal Museum expressed interest in buying the series, but refused to display it, citing fear that it could "offend certain groups". Dutch politician Geert Wilders, leader of the Partij voor de Vrijheid (Party for Freedom), excoriated the museum’s decision, saying it was “based on fear”.

Misplaced Pages article

In 2008, several Muslims protested against the inclusion of Muhammad's depictions in English Misplaced Pages's Muhammad article. An online petition claims to have collected over 300,000 signatures in three months (December 2007 to February 2008). The petition was started by Faraz Ahmad of Daska, Pakistan, resident in Glasgow, formerly editing Misplaced Pages as "Farazilu". The petition specifies opposition to a reproduction of a 17th century Ottoman copy of a 14th century (Ilkhanate) manuscript image (MS Arabe 1489) showing Muhammad as he prohibits intercalation. Jeremy Henzell-Thomas of The American Muslim deplored the petition as one of "these mechanical knee-jerk reactions" which

are gifts to those who seek every opportunity to decry Islam and ridicule Muslims and can only exacerbate a situation in which Muslims and the Western media seem to be locked in an ever-descending spiral of ignorance and mutual loathing.

Misplaced Pages considered but rejected a compromise that would allow visitors to choose whether to view the page with images. The Misplaced Pages community has refused to act upon the petition. The site's answers to frequently asked questions says Misplaced Pages does not censor itself for the benefit of any group.

See also

• Aniconism
• Iconography
• Qadam Rasul
• The Satanic Verses

Controversial depictions

• Idomeneo controversy
• Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy
• Lars Vilks Muhammad drawings controversy

References

1. ^ T. W. Arnold (1919). ""An Indian Picture of Muhammad and His Companions"". The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs, Vol. 34, No. 195. pp. 249–252. Retrieved 2007-05-01. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
2. Jonathan Bloom & Sheila Blair (1997). Islamic Arts. London: Phaidon. p. 202.
3. ^ Office of the Curator (2003-05-08). "Courtroom Friezes: North and South Walls" (pdf). Information Sheet, Supreme Court of the United States. Retrieved 2007-07-08.
4. Ali, Wijdan. "From the Literal to the Spiritual: The Development of Prophet Muhammad's Portrayal from 13th Century Ilkhanid Miniatures to 17th Century Ottoman Art". In Proceedings of the 11th International Congress of Turkish Art, eds. M. Kiel, N. Landman, and H. Theunissen. No. 7, 1–24. Utrecht, The Netherlands, August 23-28, 1999, p. 7
5. "Islamic Figurative Art and Depictions of Muhammad". religionfacts.com. Retrieved 2007-07-06.
6. ^ Richard Halicks (2006-02-12). "Images of Muhammad: Three ways to see a cartoon". Atlanta Journal-Constitution. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
7. ^ "Explaining the outrage". Chicago Tribune. 2006-02-08. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
8. Ibn Sa'd -- Kitabh al-Tabaqat al-Kabir, as translated by S. Moinul and H.K. Ghazanfar, Kitab Bhavan, New Delhi, n.d.
9. "USC-MSA Compendium of Muslim Texts". Retrieved 2006-03-10.
10. Cite error: The named reference fresco was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
11. "Italy frees Fresco Suspects". New York Times. 2002-08-22. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
12. Staff. Danish cartoons 'plotters' held BBC, 12 February 2008
13. Ströman, Lars (2007-08-18). "Rätten att förlöjliga en religion" (in Swedish). Nerikes Allehanda. Retrieved 2007-08-31.
    English translation: Ströman, Lars (2007-08-28). "The right to ridicule a religion". Nerikes Allehanda. Retrieved 2007-08-31.
14. "Iran protests over Swedish Muhammad cartoon". Agence France-Presse. 2007-08-27. Retrieved 2007-08-27.
15. "PAKISTAN CONDEMNS THE PUBLICATION OF OFFENSIVE SKETCH IN SWEDEN" (Press release). Pakistan Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 2007-08-30. Retrieved 2007-08-31.
16. Salahuddin, Sayed (2007-09-01). "Indignant Afghanistan slams Prophet Mohammad sketch". Reuters. Retrieved 2007-09-09.
17. Fouché, Gwladys (2007-09-03). "Egypt wades into Swedish cartoons row". The Guardian. Retrieved 2007-09-09.
18. "Jordan condemns new Swedish Mohammed cartoon". Agence France-Presse. 2007-09-03. Retrieved 2007-09-09.
19. "The Secretary General strongly condemned the publishing of blasphemous caricatures of prophet Muhammad by Swedish artist" (Press release). Organisation of the Islamic Conference. 2007-08-30. Retrieved 2007-09-09.
20. "Allah o gay bar"; gayswithoutborders.com; Retrieved on 2007-12-06
21. "Muslims Protest Misplaced Pages Images of Muhammad". FOX News. 2008-02-06. Retrieved 2008-02-07.
22. ^ Noam Cohen (2008-02-05). "Misplaced Pages Islam Entry Is Criticized". New York Times. Retrieved 2008-02-07.
23. petition homepage (hosted by Care2). see also"Petition seeks to remove images of Muhammad" Misplaced Pages Signpost 11 February 2008.
24. MS Arabe 1489. The image used by Misplaced Pages is hosted on Wikimedia Commons (upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0d/Maome.jpg). The reproduction originates from the website of the Bibliothèque nationale de France .
25. Misplaced Pages and Depictions of the Prophet Muhammad: The Latest Inane Distraction, 10 February 2008
26. Misplaced Pages defies 180,000 demands to remove images of the Prophet The Guardian 17 February 2008
27. Misplaced Pages Refuses To Delete Picture Of Muhammad Information Week 7 February 2008.

External links

• "Religious" Paintings in Islamic Art
• Mohammed Image Archive: Depictions of Mohammed Throughout History

• Muhammad
• Iconography
• Idolatry