Islamic Art: Then v. Now

You’re probably aware that when South Park’s SuperBestFriends episode aired in 2001 there was no Muslim backlash to speak of. Of course that’s wholly unsurprising, since:

[t]he Qur’an contains absolutely nothing about depicting Mohammed. It is only the Hadith, most of which came several hundred years after Mohammed’s death, that discuss this—one of them bans all depictions of living creatures outright, and another merely says that such illustrations are not to be encouraged, but does not decree that those found guilty are to be punished. The major reason it is widely considered wrong to depict Mohammed, especially among the Sunni majority of Muslims, is that it might encourage idolatry. This might be fair enough within the Islamic world, but is clearly absurd to apply outside of it. After all, non-believers cannot make themselves any more guilty of non-belief or idolatry by drawing pictures. But if the justification behind fatwas against depicters of Mohammed is based in the Hadith, then clerics would have to issue fatwas against all those who draw pictures of living creatures—a crime which virtually every person on earth is guilty of.

That being said, the obvious inference is that the violent “protests,” threats, and vitriol surrounding the Mohammed Cartoons a couple years ago, as well as the more recent South Park episode, stems less from religion and more from anger at being insulted. The final nail in the no-can-draw-Mohammed coffin is the plain fact that Islamic artists have long depicted Mohammed in a variety of ways. Enjoy (below) the contrast between Islamic art circa 12th century and some choice pieces from the 21st century.

Socio-Political