| The practice of or belief in the avoiding or shunning of images of divine beings, prophets or other respected religious figures, or in different manifestations, any human beings or living creatures. |  |
This week’s shocking events in Paris (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-30708237) have brought back into public consciousness debates about free-speech and the right to freedom of expression. Many have naturally rallied to uphold the right of satirical magazines such as Charlie Hebdo to express their opinions and publish cartoons containing images of The Prophet that many Muslims find offensive - this has been seen most clearly with the twitter hashtag #iamcharlie (http://republicanherald.com/news/i-am-charlie-goes-viral-after-paris-news-attack-1.1814311).
I think at times such as these it is worth looking back at why many Muslims find images of the Prophet Muhammad offensive. The Aniconism of Islam began with the prohibition of images of God; Islam is concerned that God is limited and diminished when he is reified by human beings. This is really crucial to understand; Allah is at the heart of every Muslim life and yet he is a transcendent being who is not to be limited or captured in human terms. This is why he has 99 names - he is beyond full definition.
Part of the work of The Prophet in Mecca was clearing of the Kaaba of figural images worshiped by the people of his time. Very soon after The Prophet’s death the Quran was written down and so Muslims became a people of the book - Just like Jews and Christians. The difference being the stress in the inerrancy of the Quran; it is perfect and cannot be altered or interpreted as it was a near-direct revelation from Allah. That said, there is no actual prohibition of figural images in the Quran (http://www.newsweek.com/koran-does-not-forbid-images-prophet-298298), there is however to be found in Hadith (the sayings of the prophet) some directives aginast the production of images.
Either-way over time an aniconic attitude developed in Islam to not only include images of God but also images of The Prophet, other prophets and The Prophet’s family. This lead to wondrous range of non-figural artistic styles in Islam including geometric patterns and calligraphic art. Artists have also found ways of circumventing the prohibition by depicting Muhammad with a veiled face or a halo of fire which obscures his image. Thus artists were able to express themselves without breaking the religious taboo.
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I hope that this will help us to remember that Muslims are offended by images of the Prophet because it strikes at a central tenet of their faith, theology and culture. Just as Americans would be offended by the burning of the star-spangled banner, Jews if you defamed a Torah Scroll or Roman Catholics if you did not consume consecrated bread and wine, so Muslims feel very strongly about this boundary and taboo. Just because in secularised Britain and France where many have lost a sense of the sacred and see everything as fair game for comment, criticism and satire does not mean that Muslims must necessarily adopt the same attitude.
What do you think about this difficult issue?
What do you think about this difficult issue?
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