Posted on 10/11/2010 5:27:24 AM PDT by Kaslin
The Muslim world isn’t going to like this one bit. There’s an exhibit in a Colorado art gallery, which is stirring up outrage from observers who say it depicts Mohammad in a sexual act.
Enrique Chagoya's “The Misadventures of Mohammad” was initially created in 2003. It is a multi-panel piece in which "cultural and religious icons are presented with humor and placed in contradictory, unexpected and sometimes controversial contexts," the artist's publisher, Shark's Ink, said in a recent interview with Fox News.
The lithograph has been on display since, of all dates, Sept. 11 at the taxpayer-funded Loveland Museum Gallery in Loveland, Colorado. It is part of an 82-print exhibit by 10 artists who have worked with Colorado printer Bud Shark. It includes several images of Mohammad, including one with what appears to be explicit homosexual content.
Scores of protesters gathered outside the museum over the weekend to object to Chagoya's work, including one Loveland Councilman, who failed to get the issue on the council agenda. But, regardless, he said he'll keep pressing to have what he has called "smut" and "pornography" taken down.
"This is a taxpayer-supported, public museum and it’s family-friendly," another member of the city council told the Denver Post. She added, "This is not something the community can be proud of." Other critics said the piece is appallingly disrespectful and offensive to Muslims everywhere.
"It is visual profanity," an art gallery owner told the local Loveland newspaper. She added, "It disgraces the mightiest prophet of the God of all creation. He may have been a pedophile but he was not a homosexual. To say otherwise is pure defamation." But the artist, a professor at Stanford University, said he was simply making a statement on problems he sees with religious institutions, including the Islamic religion. "My intention is to critique religious institutions, since they affect everybody's lives - even people outside the religious sects," Chagoya told FoxNews.com.
"In my work mentioned above I address the role of the Islamic religion among other religious groups imposing its credo on cultures all over the globe. I also critique Islam's position against same-sex marriage while allowing pedophiles to be reviled as prophets.”
Chagoya said he's surprised by the response, saying there were no objections when the piece, which also includes comic book characters, Mexican pornography, Mayan symbols and ethnic stereotypes, was shown last year at a museum in Denver. “No one seemed to mind then,” he added. “I can’t understand the sudden outrage and intolerance towards satire.”
"My work is about the corruption of the spiritual by the institutions behind it, not about the beliefs of anyone. I respect people's opinions and I hope they respect mine," Chagoya said. "All I do is use my art to express my anxieties, with some sense of humor. Let’s agree to disagree, and long live our First Amendment.”
A local painter, who was part of a smaller group of counter-demonstrators outside the museum, said she agreed with Chagoya. "We have to be a country where freedom of expression thrives even if it offends the d-- Muslims," she bluntly told the local paper. “If you don’t like it you are probably stuck in the stone ages. When you manage to get running water get back in touch with me.”
The director of cultural services at the museum said the controversy has attracted people to the exhibit. The museum had over 600 visitors on Saturday, compared with an average of 75 and nearly 300 on Sunday, compared to the average 30 to 40, according to the local paper. "We invite everyone to come in, regardless of opinion, to write on a comment slip," she told the Reporter Herald.
Professor Chagoya, when asked whether he fears reprisals from Muslims, had this to say on Friday: “If you can’t understand satire – whether it mocks exalted professors or exalted prophets - then jump on the next camel and get the hell out of the country. This is America, not a Muslim theocracy."
Islam is the religion of spiritual perverts.
No. 1 Nation in Sexy Web Searches? Call it Pornistan
By Kelli Morgan
Published July 13, 2010
| FoxNews.com
They may call it the “Land of the Pure,” but Pakistan turns out to be anything but.
The Muslim country, which has banned content on at least 17 websites to block offensive and blasphemous material, is the world’s leader in online searches for pornographic material, FoxNews.com has learned.
...
So here’s the irony: Google ranks Pakistan No. 1 in the world in searches for pornographic terms, outranking every other country in the world in searches per person for certain sex-related content.
Pakistan is top dog in searches per-person for
“horse sex” since 2004,
“donkey sex” since 2007,
“rape pictures” between 2004 and 2009,
“rape sex” since 2004,
“child sex” between 2004 and 2007 and since 2009,
“animal sex” since 2004 and
“dog sex” since 2005,
according to Google Trends and Google Insights, features of Google that generate data based on popular search terms.
The country also is tops — or has been No. 1 — in searches for “sex,” “camel sex,” “rape video,” “child sex video” and some other searches that can’t be printed here.
...
In addition to banning content on 17 websites, including islamexposed.blogspot.com, Pakistan is monitoring seven other sites — Google, Yahoo, Bing, YouTube, Amazon, MSN and Hotmail — for anti-Islamic content, the Associated Press reported in June.
...
Pakistan temporarily banned Facebook in May when Muslim groups protested the “Everybody Draw Muhammad Day” page, where users were encouraged to upload pictures of the Prophet Muhammad. The page remained on Facebook, but Pakistani users were unable to view it, said Andrew Noyes, manager of Facebook’s Public Policy Communication.
The country’s punishment for those charged with blasphemy is execution, ...
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/07/12/data-shows-pakistan-googling-pornographic-material/
Cue Rage Boy in 3..2..1..
I thought this piece was satire. I know this artist likes to depict Jesus in these profane ways, but I didn’t know he attacked Islam as well. I hope he’s ready for the amount of death threats he’s about to receive...There’s going to be a lot of them. This guy sounds like the Gloria Allred of art (an opportunistic attention seeker)
Tales of interest ping
This is indeed satire, but the artwork in question pertained to Jesus, not Mohammed. I’m surprised that Adams didn’t mention this anywhere at all in the article.
Good satire by Professor Adams, but don't you wish someone somewhere would actually say this?
Perhaps Mr. Adams is counting on the Muzzies being too stupid to realize it is satire and getting into head chopping mode with the coyote "artist."
My thoughts exactly. However, Adams's piece is a work of journalistic art, and as such, deserves to be protected.
Brilliant satire ... I do hope it's satire
“When you manage to get running water get back in touch with me.”
That wouldn’t include flood waters, either.
could get interesting...
The people posting comments at the Townhall site are amazingly clueless. Dear Lord, people, it’s satire!
The best satire mocks the clueless. Islamic rage boy attacking a museum for mocking Christ? Priceless. Dr. Adams is just sitting back pointing and laughing!
He may have been a pedophile but he was not a homosexual.
Sometimes reality is more bizarre than satire.
Too bad that's a tad too lengthy for a good FR tagline. I guess mine will just have to continue to serve...
Ummmm...
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