Currently, there are a multitude of pictures and sculptures of Jesus — the Son of God — in Roman Catholic churches. Growing up in Asia, I remember seeing a beautiful 100 foot long golden image of Buddha. Clearly, many religions do routinely have images and statutes of God and prophets on display.
In contrast, some churches forbid or do not have any graven images. Best as I know, Episcopal churches and Protestant churches typically do not put graven images — statutes or pictures — in their churches. Yet, no Episcopalian or fundamentalist church threatens the Roman Catholic church with death or other retributions for their graven images.
Whether they should or not, many religions do make graven images of God and God’s prophets. And, they put those graven images in their homes, temples, churches. There are no graven images of God in Jewish synagogues. At least in recent history, the Jews have never attacked Christians or other religions because of graven images or pictures.
Should the Islamic prophet Muhammad be an exception? Should a picture of Muhammad – or a contest to make many pictures of him supportive of free speech result in death threats? It did. Recently, Molly Norris – who sponsored a contest to make a multitude of pictures of Mohammad — went “underground” due to Islamic death threats.
In the Islam-ist world, pictures of the Prophet are forbidden. Make a cartoon of him or jest about the Prophet — yes, that can result in a death threat.
There have been many political ideologies — and yes Islam is a political ideology — that seek to dominate the world by violence and intimidation. Telling the world ‘no graven images’ of Muhammad or dire effects will occur is one more instance.
For sure, America can require Islamic mosques/ community centers to abide by American laws. For example, America does not allow Mormons to have multiple wives. Likewise, America can require mosques/ community centers to act similarly as others do: provide charity to the local community and reach out to other Faiths.
How can your church, synagogue or faith organization “shake hands” with local Islamic mosques? How can your faith organizations encourage a local Islamic faith organization to join the 20th century world and support common spiritual, religious goals? Specifically, get a commitment against jehad, against death threats, and a commitment for tolerance, compassion and the equal treatment of men and women.
Maybe that might be something to put on the agenda for Outreach in your church?
written by Cameron Jackson DrCameronJackson@gamil.com
See the following:
“Everybody Draw Mohammad Day was a 2010 protest in support of free speech, specifically in opposition to those who threaten violence against artists who draw representations of Muhammad.
It began as a protest against censorship of an American television show, South Park, “201” by its distributor, Comedy Central, in response to death threats against some of those responsible for the segment.
Observance of the day began with a drawing posted on the Internet on April 20, 2010, accompanied by text suggesting that “everybody” create a drawing representing Muhammad, on May 20, 2010, as a protest against efforts to limit freedom of speech.
U.S. cartoonist Molly Norris of Seattle, Washington, created the artwork in reaction to Internet death threats that had been made against cartoonists Trey Parker and Matt Stone for depicting Muhammad in an episode of South Park.
Depictions of Muhammad are explicitly forbidden by a few hadith (Islamic texts), though not by the Qur’an.[1]
Today, Catholic Churches have images of Jesus on a cross. Episcopal Churches and Protestent churches do not have graven images of God in their church. Episcopalians and Protestants do not make death threats on Catholics for hanging a statute of Jesus crucified on a cross.
“Postings on RevolutionMuslim.com (under the pen name Abu Talha al-Amrikee; later identified as Zachary Adam Chesser) had said that Parker and Stone could wind up like Theo van Gogh, a Dutch filmmaker who was shot to death by a Muslim extremist. The individuals running the website later denied that the postings were actual threats, although they were widely perceived as such.[citation needed]
Norris said that if people draw pictures of Muhammad, Islamic terrorists would not be able to murder them all, and threats to do so would become unrealistic.
Within a week, Norris’ idea became popular on Facebook, was supported by numerous bloggers, and generated coverage on the blog websites of major U.S. newspapers. As the publicity mounted, Norris and the man who created the first Facebook page promoting the May 20 event disassociated themselves from it. Nonetheless, planning for the protest continued with others “taking up the cause”.[2] Facebook had an “An “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day”” page, which grew to over 100,000 participants. A protest page on Facebook against the initiative, named “Against ‘Everybody Draw Mohammed Day'”, attracted about the same number of supporters. Subsequently, Facebook was temporarily blocked by Pakistan; the ban was lifted after Facebook agreed to block the page for users in India and Pakistan.
In the media, Everybody Draw Mohammed Day attracted both support from commentators who felt that the campaign represented important issues of freedom of speech, and the need to stand up for this freedom, as well as criticism from other commentators who found the initiative crass, juvenile, and needlessly offensive.
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‘Make no graven images of God’ is standard Old Testament. Make a picture of Islamic prophet Mohammand results in death? – Monterey Bay Forum : Monterey Bay Forum
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