Let’s talk about Blasphemy Art and the way the world responds to religious art that is created to provoke. Here are two well-known pieces:
On the left is the “Piss Christ” (1989), a photograph by Andres Serrano (American), in which a plastic crucifix is submerged in a glass of Serrano’s own urine. In 1989 the piece won an art contest which was partially sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts, a United States federal agency (i.e. funded by American taxpayers). The photograph was praised by one art critic as “mysterious and beautiful” and “darkly beautiful”. Sister Wendy, a well-known Anglican nun and internationally respected art critic, praised the work as a commentary on “what we have done to Christ”. Prints of the photo have been featured in art galleries outside of the US, including France and Australia. Vandals have defaced prints of the work in France, Australia, and Sweden. Despite a claim of death threats reported by at least one gallery, no one, including the artist, has ever been attacked or harmed in any way as a result of this photograph. On the contrary, the “Piss Christ” has received more support than condemnation–on the basis of Free Speech/Free Expression, which Americans and most Europeans traditionally hold as sacred. President Obama declined to condemn or even comment on the piece which will appear at a gallery in New York next week, although he sent apologies to Islamic nations in the wake of the anti-Mohammed film “Innocence of Muslims” last week, a film which critics claim is the catalyst for the violent outbursts and killings by Muslims around the world.
The image on the right is a cartoon drawn by artist Kurt Westergaard (Denmark) featuring Mohammed with a bomb in his turban, and on the turban is inscribed a part of the “shahad” (the Islamic statement of faith which declares that “there is only one God, Allah, and Mohammed is his messanger”). The cartoon was published in 2005 in the the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten. Immediately upon publication, the cartoon was condemned all across the world by politicians, presidents and prime ministers, ordinary citizens from every walk of life (and religion), and even members of the art community. Condemned and denounced in the angriest of tones as “racist”, “Islamophobic”, and “hate speech”. In a sharp contrast to the reaction to the “Piss Christ”, the “Mohammed Turban Bomb” cartoon didn’t get quite the same Free Expression support from the Western elite. Protests and violent riots carried out by Muslims across the Islamic world lasted for months–seemingly never-ending as I recall. Embassies were attacked and set on fire, flags representing various European nations were burned, representatives of several Muslim countries demanded the Danish PM meet with them to discuss censoring the artists and the newspaper. [The PM, bless his heart, refused the meeting.] The artist, Westergaard, received numerous death threats and was placed under 24-hour security protection. In 2008, Danish Intelligence uncovered and foiled a murder plot by three Muslim men against Westergaard. In 2010, a Muslim man entered Westergaard’s home prepared to murder Westergaard with an ax, but the artist was able to escape to his panic room. To this day, that image is feared the world over. You may find numerous references to it in books, magazines, and on websites and blogs, but you won’t find those same sources actually posting or printing the image. They simply describe it in words. That is real fear.
The next time you hear someone talking about Islam being peaceful and most Muslims being moderate, and how Christians are the ones who force their beliefs on society and how Christians are the ones who will turn nations into raging theocracies, remind them of the incredible opposing responses to the two images above. Ask them who the real bullies of the world are. Make the bleeding hearts, the Islam-appeasers, and the anti-Christian bigots face their own irrational allegiances.
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