Year of Faith

Honestly, just watch this special comment by Keith Olbermann, or read this piece on the Huffington Post, they say everything I wanted to and more.  My thoughts and summary are after the break.

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Today is Draw Muhammad Day.

I wasn’t really aware of it until this afternoon.  I had heard a little bit here and there but I didn’t know it was here until, well, the day of.  Like I said, I’ve been busy, so let’s all get up to speed.

Back in April, a couple of episodes of South Park were going to be aired on Comedy Central depicting the prophet Muhammad in a  bear suit.  Now, images of the Muhammad, or indeed any person or animal in Islam is generally forbidden, as outlined not in the Qur’an but in various Hadiths (sayings and tales from Muhammad recorded by his followers, and generally not thought to be the word of God).  In Islam Muhammad is the perfect Muslim, an exemplar to every follower, and so to even depict him is considered offensive, an affront, a way to belittle something that needs to be taken seriously and respected within the Islamic community.  Depicting Muhammad is already offensive, mocking him doubly so.

Some of the hadiths in question, from Religion Facts:

“Ibn ‘Umar reported Allah’s Messenger (may peace be upon him) having said: Those who paint pictures would be punished on the Day of Resurrection and it would be said to them: Breathe soul into what you have created.” (Sahih Muslim vol.3, no.5268)

“This hadith has been reported on the authority of Abu Mu’awiya though another chain of transmitters (and the words are): Verily the most grievously tormented people amongst the denizens [inhabitants] of Hell on the Day of Resurrection would be the painters of pictures….” (Sahih Muslim vol.3, no.5271)

“Narrated [Muhammad's wife] ‘Aisha: Allah’s Apostle said, ‘The painter of these pictures will be punished on the Day of Resurrection, and it will be said to them, Make alive what you have created.’” (Bukhari vol.9, book 93 no.646)

“Narrated ‘Aisha: The Prophet entered upon me while there was a curtain having pictures (of animals) in the house. His face got red with anger, and then he got hold of the curtain and tore it into pieces. The Prophet said, ‘Such people as paint these pictures will receive the severest punishment on the Day of Resurrection.’” (Bukhari vol.8, book 73, no.130)

“Umar said, ‘We do not enter your churches because of the statues and pictures.’ Ibn ‘Abbas used to pray in the church provided there were no statues in it.” (Bukhari vol.1, chapter 54)

“Muhammad went to Fatimah’s house, but turned back when he saw a figured curtain.” (Sunan Abu Dawud vol.3, book 21, no.3746)

The producers/creators of South Park, Matt Stone and Trey Parker, soon found themselves the subject of death threats from the New York Islamic group Revoluton Muslim, featuring a graphic picture of the corpse of Theo van Gogh, who was murdered in 2004 by a Muslim because of his involvement in a film criticizing the treatment of women in Islamic societies.  Comedy Central pulled the offending section.

In response to this decision by Comedy Central and the death threats against Stone and Parker, cartoonist Molly Norris drew up this poster as a joke satirizing the situation:

The poster found wide circulation across numerous blogs and news sources, and the idea of a Draw Muhammad Day was quickly championed on Facebook.  Norris tried to take back the poster, requesting that it be taken down and insisting that it was nothing more than a joke, and that an actual event like this would be truly offensive.  It was too late, the idea had gone viral, and so here we are.

This day is being championed, by and large, by proponents of free speech and the argument that it was wrong of Comedy Central to back down and give in to the lobby of Islamic backlash.  The day is a protest against those who would seek to limit freedom of speech through violence and coercion.

I’ve been going over this in my head for most of the day.  It didn’t sit well with me, and it has taken me a long time to figure out why.

This isn’t a joke about the beliefs of a bunch of bronze-agers, this isn’t poking fun at backwards beliefs.  You may see it that way, but there is a reason why Muslims can get so very, very angry and uncomfortable when this happens, and assuming that it’s because they’re backwards is the cowards way of dealing with this issue.  It ignores the obvious comparisons, the offensive things that people ought to be considering when they make these drawings.  This isn’t comparable to an edible chocolate Jesus statue, or Buddy Christ.  This is blackface, this is depicting child porn, this is snuff films.  Imagine how you would react to these things, that is what depictions of Muhammad are to Muslims.  It is hitting them in their hearts, in their souls.

When I was learning about political philosophy I was rather taken by the problem of toleration of intolerant groups.  Sooner or later a free and tolerant society will have to deal with intolerant groups, and there comes a questions- do you deny these groups their freedom of speech, and thus show your commitment to toleration?  Or do you instead let them have their say, allow intolerance, risk hypocrisy?  I never figured out where I stood on that.

But this get’s us to why I don’t like the idea of Everyone Draw Muhammad Day.  It is intolerance met with more intolerance.  You’re defending your freedom of speech, and refusing to bow to violence, which is vital and admirable, but you do so at a cost.  You end up offending all kinds of Muslims, not just the ones who send death threats, and some who take this very, very seriously.

So should we have the right to depict images of the prophet Muhammad?  Absolutely.  We need to be able to tell his story, and in a variety of mediums so that it can have the most impact, the most beauty, the most value.  I think that’s something that will happen gradually, perhaps over a very long period of time as Islam grows and changes.  And I think forcing it like this is hurtful and perhaps even shameful.  But I’d be hard pressed to say that it was wrong.

Over Easter weekend I dug into the pile of new books I bought in March, starting with The Taqwacores by Michael Muhammad Knight.  Now, I won’t be encountering Islam proper until August, so I don’t want to get too into this, but I really need to say something about the book now, because it really blew me away and I wasn’t expecting that.

The Taqwacores is a fictional account of a group of young punk Muslims living in Boston and their particular take on life and Islam.  The main character, Yusef, is written as a perfect everyman whose struggle was easy to identify with despite the cultural disparity.  You don’t need to know much about Islam to see yourself in his shoes, as he mostly just reacts to the mix of punk rock chaos and various shades of Islam that surround him.  Taqwacore itself is a mixture of the words ‘hardcore’, a genre of punk music, and ‘taqwa’, an Arabic word meaning piety, or to be God-fearing.

It is a gripping yarn, effortlessly stringing together Islam with punk culture which creates a believable portrait of a movement that, for the most part, didn’t actually exist before this book was written, at least not in North America.  Michael Muhammad Knight inspired young Islamic punks to coalesce into a real Taqwacore scene.  This in turn spawned an excellent documentary film called Taqwacore: The Birth of Punk Islam which I had the privilege of watching at last year’s Vancouver International Film Festival, as well as a film adaptation of the novel, which I dearly hope will be making its way here in the near future.

Part of the reason why I enjoyed this book so much is also the reason behind why I like talking about religion in video games, and incidentally why I have a soft spot for modern imaginings of Shakespeare plays.  It’s  the synthesis of the old and the new, the ancient, medieval, and the modern.  I don’t know what it is about this combination, perhaps it’s the impression that the old ways are still practical, perhaps it’s the juxtaposition.  I can’t say that I’m quite certain, but it tickles my fancy, as they say.

I really want to just gush about this book and everything that happens in it, but I want to save that for my month of Islam where I think it would be much more insightful and relevant.  Suffice it to say that I will be actively pursuing Knight’s other work and will be sampling all the Taqwacore bands that I can come August.  But for now I will leave you with these lyrics which open The Taqwacores. Enjoy.

I see Muhammad
down at the corner store
rocking on Galaga
getting the high score

When he delivers sermons
the kids think he’s a bore
but when he smashes idols
everyone cheers for more

Muhammad was a punk rocker
he tore everything down
Muhammad was a punk rocker
and he rocked that town

All the people in Mecca
knew Muhammad’s name
they knew him by his fucked-up hair
and dangling wallet chain

They knew him by his spikes
and said he was insane
but Ali knew better
Uncle wouldn’t play their game

Muhammad was a punk rocker
you know he tore shit up
Muhammad was a punk rocker
Rancid sticker on his pickup truck

When he was in a dumpster by himself
Allah told him crazy things
for Muhammad to share with all of us
on his six holy strings