Protests Over Wiki Images Of Prophet Muhammad
An article about the Prophet Muhammad in the English-language Wikipedia has become the subject of an online protest in the last few weeks because of its representations of Muhammad, taken from medieval manuscripts.In addition to numerous e-mail messages sent to Wikipedia.org, an online petition cites a prohibition in Islam on images of people.
The petition has more than 80,000 “signatures”, though many who submitted them to ThePetitionSite.com, remained anonymous.
“We have been noticing a lot more similar sounding, similar looking e-mails from mid-January,” said Jay Walsh, a spokesman for the Wikimedia Foundation in San Francisco, which administers the various online encyclopedias in more than 250 languages.
A Frequently Asked Questions page explains the site’s polite but firm refusal to remove the images: “Since Wikipedia is an encyclopedia with the goal of representing all topics from a neutral point of view, Wikipedia is not censored for the benefit of any particular group.”
The notes left on the petition site come from all over the world. “It’s totally unacceptable to print the Prophet’s picture,” Saadia Bukhari from Pakistan wrote in a message. “It shows insensitivity towards Muslim feelings and should be removed immediately.”
The site considered but rejected a compromise that would allow visitors to choose whether to view the page with images.
Paul M. Cobb, who teaches Islamic history at Notre Dame, said, “Islamic teaching has traditionally discouraged representation of humans, particularly Muhammad, but that doesn’t mean it’s nonexistent.” He added, "Some of the most beautiful images in Islamic art are manuscript images of Muhammad."
The idea of imposing a ban on all depictions of people, particularly Muhammad, dates to the 20th century, he said. With the Wikipedia entry, he added, "what you are dealing with is not medieval illustrations, you are dealing with modern media and getting a modern response." (DNA)
Image - Source
Labels: Controversy
posted by The Malaysian. at 2/07/2008 10:25:00 AM
1 Comments:
those south asian & arabs make other muslims look stupid with their stupidity. they are not worthy of protesting against such act. after all, almost all suicide bombers & extremists come from those people. talking about people tainting islam, you guys tainted islam even more. wife beaters, book haters & narrow minded human. history is repeating itself again, we used to see the christians did all of that, now the muslims turn is up. it is not about religion but it is about norms & cultures. so instead of turning into xenophobes, we should turn into racists.
Post a Comment
<< Home