Well, here in New Zealand it's just ticked over to May the 20th which means that it's the first annual "Everybody draw Muhammed day". The title is pretty self-explanatory, to participate you just have to draw a picture of the prophet Muhammed.
Why on earth would you do that though? Isn't it offensive to Muslims? Well yes it is. Surah 21:52-54 warns against worshipping images of Muhammed. The sahih Bukhari, volume 9 book 93 numbers 646-648 say that people who paint living things will be punished on the day of resurrection for trying to mimic what Allah had created. The Sahih Muslim, book 24 number 5272 says again that the painters of pictures will be tormented on the day of resurrection and that while they are in hell their pictures will come to life and punish them.
So essentially Muslims are so against the idea of depicting Muhammed because a representation of someone undercuts the idea that Allah is the creator of all and that Muhammed is his true prophet. A picture of someone is not the real thing, just a worthless simulacrum that can only serve to take away from the authentic original. So since these pictures fall so short they shouldn't be drawn at all and a Muslim takes offence when they are.
If you're having a hard time understanding that think of the way that Catholics use images of Mary etc to worship. This is just the sort of thing that these verses are presumably warning us about.
So now that we've established that many Muslims do not like people drawing Muhammed and why this is so, we have a conundrum. Should I participate in "Everybody draw Muhammed day"? Ultimately it's up to you but I personally will be for the following reasons:
1- I am not a Muslim. This particular prescription is found only in the Islamic faith and it seems only relevant to people who don't want to risk becoming an idolater. This line of reasoning simply isn't applicable to me and so I feel happy to disregard it. The only part of this that is morally applicable to me is that I will no doubt annoy a few Muslims if there happen to be a few who read this topic. That's regrettable but I wont spare their feelings when it's over something so trivial. I would put the image in spoiler tags but I'm such a noob that I can't do that without getting html errors.
2- I understand the difference between a picture of a person and a person. This is what the problem with drawing Muhammed is all about right? People place too much importance on the image and forget about who it represents. Well I don't have this issue.
3- In the last decade radical Muslims have responded disproportionately to people who have drawn Muhammed. They've made threats, held up signs on par with the Westboro Baptist church and just generally acted rather bloodthirsty. This kind of response just isn't appropriate and so actively drawing Muhammed works as a sort of protest against it. That's what "Everyone draw Muhammed day" is all about.
So then here's my picture of Muhammed. I've also added in a picture of a busty woman carrying a whip. If I'm going to be punished in hell by these pictures I might as well make the most of it.
If you don't want to see it then close your eyes and scroll down a bit.
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