Muhammad's face

Alright guys

 

So I did a little research and I think I uncovered the reason that it is forbidden for artists to depict Muhammad’s face. As we know in Islam it is clearly forbidden for anyone to visually depict God because God is transcendent and bigger than any one form. This transcendentalism of God is a huge theme in the Qur'an, as Sells explains, God is even described by multiple pronouns such as me, him, or us to illustrate how God encompasses everything. However there is no taboo against depicting human beings and it is clearly stated in the Qur'an that Muhammad is only a man. So why is it "against the rules" to paint a picture of Muhammad smiling while reciting the Qur'an? Well according to religionfacts.com this sensitivity toward depictions of Muhammad is fairly new. In fact depictions of Muhammad by Muslim artists were fairly common during medieval times. Somewhere along the line however Muslims took the same ban that was on depictions of God and applied it to Muhammad, however the reasoning behind the ban was different. While visual depictions of God are forbidden because God could never be represented on paper or in marble and attempting to confine God to a physical form is to renounce this truth. Depictions of Muhammad on the other hand are forbidden because he, very much so, can be depicted in a definite physical form. Muslims fear that if depictions of Muhammad are allowed than people will begin to cling to the prophet himself rather than his teachings and ultimately end up worshipping him as a god, much like Jesus Christ. The ban on visual depictions of Muhammad is almost purely out of respect for Muhammad as the man. Muslims realize that the idea of God is abstract and Muhammad, on the other hand, is very much touchable. There was a man named Muhammad in history who claimed to be spoken to by God, and generally it is much easier for people to rally behind someone they can imagine themselves talking to rather than an invisible abstract force. For Muslims seeing their most beloved prophet falsely idolized would be torture and the easiest way to prevent this is just to not have people draw him.

 

That being said why do we care? It's America, why can't we show depictions of Muhammad on TV? Well interestingly enough Sunni Muslims are much more sensitive to visual depictions of Muhammad than Shi'ites. Now Sunnis make up over 75% of all Muslims including the notorious global militant organization Al-Qaeda. Obviously the very conservative, very strict Muslims such as the members of Al-Qaeda are going to be much more sensitive to these visual depictions than other Muslims, and as clearly seen by the non-release of the dead Osama Bin Laden picture America's new policy toward these groups is to not do anything to offend them. So politically speaking we can't show pictures of Muhammad on TV in America not because it would be a rude thing to do toward Muslims, but rather because we don't really want to do anything to anger Al-Qaeda or make it easier for them to recruit more conservative Muslims for their cause.

 

Speaking of Al-Qaeda it’s the waning hours of September 11^th and I’m about to post something on a blog about Islam, what are the chances that I’m not berating it? That’s not to say I’m a bigot or anti-Muslim in any way, but rather that there’s still a lot of animosity toward the religion as a whole in this country. Reading Sell’s describe how the Qur’an is not about violence or punishment, but rather choices and the beauty of God reinforced what I always knew about Islam. It is not a religion of anger or of war, but rather of peace and beauty. In fact the recitation of the Qur’an has even brought people to tears according to Sells. What a group of misled souls does in the name of God does not define the religion as a whole. Has Christianity not had its share of black eyes? Selling indulgences, burning “heathens” at the stake, waging multiple wars on Muslims, the holocaust, and even recent child sex scandals all come to mind. However we maintain that Christianity is a religion of peace and charity as the Muslim community does about Islam. However ignorant people will always out number educated people in the world and there seems to be little we can do to stop the “death to America” or “Islam is of the devil” chants. Much like everything else this isn’t new; in fact it took Muhammad himself to declare “general amnesty” to end the cyclical wars of the 600s. It’s now 1400 years later and we can only dream of such a simple, finite solution to our differences.