The Power of an Image: Artistic Meaning and International Scandal

The Western view of the world of Islam has always been tainted by Western values. Christians especially have concentrated on the spread of their own values and morals as a way of spreading their vision of God. Artistic work, especially concerning the depiction of religious imagery, is one of many points of departure between Western and Islamic perspectives. As long as the Western world continues to maintain inconsistent practices toward other cultures and religions, tensions between these areas will remain high. The power of the artistic image lies in the creation or dissipation of such tensions.

The Islamic world has long been a mystery to Westerners. Artists in nineteenth-century Europe were famed for an Orientalist movement that idealized and mystified the people, architecture, and culture of much of the Islamic world. Buildings, market places, and especially women were presented to a European audience as “the other”; images of the primitive for contemporary consumption. The presentation of Muslim life in this format led directly to a general European understanding of Muslim culture as nomadic and primitive. Islamic imagery, including its unique architectural forms, is far removed in many ways from the Western idea of art and creativity.

Islamic art does not allow religious imagery in figural form.[1] In other words, there are rarely actual artistic representations of God, Mohammed, or other important religious figures included in visual art. Especially in the case of God, it is believed that a visual representation of a physical form of God would reduce his greatness and suggest comparison between God and other figural forms, especially humans, who are clearly something else entirely. Islamic belief holds that God has no equal and, therefore, cannot be compared to anything. He cannot, in fact, even be truly defined.[2] God is beyond the conceptualization of limited human intellect.[3] This lack of representation, however, was made up for by the beautifully ornate script and distinctive design elements included in Islamic art. The characteristic pointed arch and the fluidity of the writing system have created a unique artistic language that decorates an amazing number of Islamic structures.

Islamic art is also exemplified by its appearance in religious and secular books. One of the most important artistic expressions in Islamic literature came in the form of the written Qur’an. Here, again, the figural form was avoided in favor of complicated and beautiful text, considered by Muslims to be the highest expression of beauty in visual form.[4] The oral recitation of the Qur’an is thought to be the most beautiful sound a human being can produce, thus adding another dimension to the artistic aspect of the scriptures. The strict avoidance of representation in these works could not be more different from Western art forms. From the very beginning of Western art, the figure has been the main vehicle for artistic expression. Visual depictions of God, the Virgin Mary, and Jesus abounded in early Christian art alongside the images of prophets, priests, and patrons. Because Western art has long considered physical depiction as a way of celebrating and respecting the subject, Western viewers have found Islamic avoidance of figures mysterious and strange. Just as the nineteenth-century exoticism in Western art created a limited understanding of the Islamic world, it also restricted our ability to understand the differences between our modes of artistic expression.

Art provides a cultural basis for the way a society understands the world around them. Artistic movements reflect the way that people understand their world and the way that they relate to others. Western Christians, coming from a long tradition of celebration of God through figural representation, have long considered the Islamic world both exotic and primitive. Islam, in turn, has viewed Western Christians as depraved and too far removed from God.[5] These cultural differences have made communication and understanding between Muslims and Christians nearly impossible. Artistic understanding among these people has been a serious issue in recent days, as offensive cartoons depicting the prophet Mohammed have been released by a Danish newspaper. These cartoons, published in September, depict the prophet Mohammed in several highly insulting ways.[6] Not the least of these affronts is the depiction of him at all, a generally forbidden practice in Muslim art and culture.

The publishing of these cartoons incited riots and violence in the Muslim world. Such disrespect for their culture and religion at the hands of Christian nations was seen as inexcusable, especially in these already trying times. Many Muslims, though offended by the cartoons themselves, quickly spoke out against others for invoking violence in the name of religious belief. Christians reacted to Muslim anger with hostility and dismissal, seeing these reactions as proof of the war-like and simplistic nature of Islamic culture. Islamic protesters were dismissed as overly emotional, as Europeans have characterized other cultures since time immemorial. Indigenous Latin American people, upon their colonization by the Spanish and up to modern times have been labeled as visceral and passionate people unable to control their emotions. This label only served to further undermine cultural understanding and to strengthen existing stereotypes. For Christians, violent protest of a seemingly trivial topic only fueled hatred and fear of Muslims in general.

Although the violence of some of the cartoon’s protestors is not to be excused on the basis of cultural stereotype, it must be understood in terms of miscommunication and the projection of Christian ideals. Violence is not sanctioned by either religious group, but the Western habit of applying Christian values to other cultures has led to a pressurized situation with volatile possibilities. Muslims and Christians alike argued against the need for violence. Protestors, however, often saw these violent outbursts as the only way to be heard in a world dominated by Western cultural ideals. They saw the cartoons, and the defense of them through arguments based on freedom of speech, as a singularly hateful attack on Muslim cultural and religious ideals.

Student at the University of Oregon turned the tables on Christians in March of this year. In response to a conservative campus newspaper’s publication of the original Mohammed cartoons, students at the liberal Insurgent newspaper published twelve equally deliberate cartoons of Jesus Christ.[7] The cartoons showed Jesus in compromising states, including an image of him nude with an erection and one of him embracing another man. Students at the liberally based paper sought to prove a point by demeaning Christian beliefs in a similar fashion to the way that Muslim belief had been treated. Their choice to depict Jesus, and therefore to pinpoint Christian religion in their attack, was in answer to the overwhelming Christian dismissal of Islamic offense at the Mohammed cartoons.

Christians were outraged by the publication of these cartoons. They saw the images of Jesus as a deliberate and purposeful strike against Christians the world over, many of them arguing that these were only the first in a series of attacks representing a war on Christianity. The Catholic League, a well-known group with “for religious and civil rights” as their tagline, has rigorously protested the publishing of these cartoons. The newspaper has been accused of a deliberate and defiling attack against Christians and their beliefs.[8] William A. Donohue, president of the Catholic League, raged against the horrifying attack on Christianity while, in the same breath, flippantly dismissed the Danish cartoons as harmless.[9] This clear double standard, active in many Christian/Islamic discourses, is at the heart of the tension between Western Christians and the Muslim world.

Another element of this controversy is in the seeming impossibility of Western Christians understanding Muslim perspective about figural representation. Although Christians were offended and outraged by the depictions of Christ, no part of that protest was an attack on the cartoons including Christ’s image. For Muslims, the offense was far deeper than simply insulting the prophet. The fact that he was drawn at all added insult to injury, essentially rubbing salt into the wounds of an already persecuted religious belief system. Many people were quick to react to the Mohammed cartoons with questions like, “What’s the big deal?” or “So what?,” without understanding the underlying artistic and cultural basis for avoidance of these images.

If Western Christians, especially evangelical and fundamentalist Christians, cannot attempt to build a cultural bridge, the tensions between Christian and Muslim will only continue to grow. Purposeful disrespect of other religious beliefs is now being thinly disguised as exercises in freedom of speech. Christians argue that they still have the upper hand because, despite their outrage, they did not riot or resort to violence. This is true, and does lend credence to their argument. It also, however, marginalizes and ignores a long history of violence in the Christian religion that has often been directed at Muslims and their beliefs. Perhaps the Crusades have faded from Christian minds, but Muslims are not likely to forget. Although many people argue that the Crusades were not a Christian movement, they were sponsored by the church and carried the sign of the cross.[10] Cartoons that belittle and debase their faith will only lead to further insurrections from the Islamic faith group.

[1] John Corrigan, Jews, Christians, and Muslims (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1998), 412.

[2] Ibn Khaldun, “The Science of Speculative Theology” in Readings in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam by John Corrigan (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1998), 131.

[3] Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Islamic Art and Spirituality (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1987), 185.

[4] Corrigan, Jews, Christians, and Muslims, 413.

[5] Sayyid Qutb, “Introduction” in Readings in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam by John Corrigan, (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1998), 360.

[6] Paul Marshall, The Mohammed Cartoons, http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/006/680llmyu.asp

[7] World Net Daily, ‘Jesus with erection’ ignites outrage, http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=49925

[8] Catholic League, Jesus Defiled in Student Newspaper, http://www.catholicleague.org/release.php?id=1116

[9] William A. Donohue, Letter to Oregon Lawmakers, http://catholicleague.org/linked%20docs/UOregon_letter.htm

[10] D. James Kennedy, The Da Vinci Myth Versus the Gospel Truth (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2006), 71.

Sources

Catholic League. Jesus Defiled in Student Newspaper. http://www.catholicleague.org/release.php?id=1116

Corrigan, John. Jews, Christians, and Muslims: A Comparative Introduction to Monotheistic Religions. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1998.

Donohue, William A. Letter to Oregon Lawmakers. http://catholicleague.org/linked%20docs/UOregon_letter.htm

Kennedy, D. James. The Da Vinci Myth Versus the Gospel Truth. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2006.

Khaldun, Ibn. “The Science of Speculative Theology.” In Readings in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam by John Corrigan, 129-133. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1998.

Marshall, Paul. The Mohammed Cartoons. http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/006/680llmyu.asp

Nasr, Seyyed Hossein. Islamic Art and Spirituality. Albany, NY: StateUniversity of New York Press, 1987.

Qutb, Sayyid. “Introduction.” In Readings in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam by John Corrigan, 357-361. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1998.

World Net Daily. ‘Jesus with erection’ ignites outrage. http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=49925