Posted on 12/02/2005 10:54:11 PM PST by Pikamax
Time again for "Self-Appointed Censor," today starring Muslim students at San Joaquin Delta College and their student imam.
Many Muslim students are upset over an artwork in the current show, "My Country, Right or Left: Artists Respond to the State of the Union," at Delta's L.H. Horton art gallery.
Called "Kalashnikov Jihad," the work by local artist John Lechner is a life-sized ceramic Kalashnikov assault rifle wrapped in pages of flowing Arabic script from the Quran.
The biting point of which, Lechner said, is "that religion is being used as weapon. That the loudest voices that we hear from the Islamic community are the terrorists and the radicals."
That's been said before, but not using pages of the Quran, at least not at Delta. And a procession of mostly male, obviously perturbed, Muslim students marching through the gallery doesn't like it, said gallery director William Wilson.
Many demand the artwork be taken down, some loudly, Wilson said. One interrupted Wilson's art talk. Another intruded upon a private business mixer held at the gallery.
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"He said the Muslim community had to resist this or they'll be relegated to the treatment the American Indian or African-American community has received in this county," Wilson recounted.
Mohammed Al-Otoum, who identified himself to Wilson as a full-time student and an imam, or mosque leader, also complained.
Saying "defacing the Quran" was "unacceptable," Al-Otoum asked that the work be removed from the exhibition; that the Quran pages be separated from the artwork and given to him, "to burn and bury them according to Islamic tradition"; and that officials arrange a private meeting between the artist and a student Muslim leader, according to Wilson, who documented the complaint.
Other students also asked for Lechner's phone number, e-mail address and home address, Wilson said.
Al-Otoum declined to comment, except to say it was Wilson's choice to write up his objection and launch an official complaint process.
The twist here is that the main objection for many is not the artwork's message but the destruction -- some say "desecration" -- of Islam's holy book. It's a sore point at Delta, where last year a Quran was found in a toilet.
But the message rankles, too. "I think it's pretty much saying that Islam teaches terrorism," objected Malik Bayanzay, president of the Islamic Student Association. That's a distortion of Quranic teaching, he said.
Bayanzay raised a couple of points: Many Americans support a flag-burning amendment, don't they? And where are the artworks desecrating the Bible or the Talmud?
Basim Elkarra, executive director of the Council on Islamic-American Relations' Sacramento chapter, added that, given the ongoing Lodi terror investigation, "rising Islamophobia" is a concern in the Stockton area.
Delta's president, Raul Rodriguez, listened to student concerns but took a firm stand against removing "Kalashnikov Jihad."
"You don't bow down to pressure like this," Rodriguez said. "You have to respect the right of the artist to express his idea. We're not going to censor anything here."
It's important for students to understand the purpose of academic freedom: to present a range of ideas so students learn the critical-thinking skills to sort them all out, Rodriguez said.
The opposite of critical thinking is allowing only one point of view. "And that's how fanatics are created," Rodriguez said. "And that's dangerous."
When one student rep intimated some Muslim students might take things into their own hands, Rodriguez responded resolutely.
"I told him I hope they don't do that, because there would be some very serious consequences. The students would be arrested. They would be expelled. And they would be branded terrorists."
The right way to object is with Islam awareness days and speakers who clear up misconceptions about Islam, Rodriguez said.
Or with equally pointed art. Have at it. Ironically, any shouting and saber-rattling tends to vindicate Lechner, whose artwork suggests a segment of contemporary Islam cannot reconcile religiosity with modern secular institutions and principles.
The reconciliation begins by conceding that art has the right to offend. Even desecrate.
I'm buying flying pig Christmas Tree ornaments for my tree.
>>Coca cola says "No Mohammed No Allah!"
If you read the stylized Coca-Cola label in a mirror, you can see it says "No Mohammed No Allah." Many Muslims worldwide still think that the name Coca-Cola was chosen and written in this font deliberately to insult Muslims when the brand-name is reflected in a mirror<<
"Have a Coke, Share a smile!", I always say...
Upon 'reflection'...{Har-Har} I see myself drinking a lot more Coke in the future...
"No mohammed, No allah - It's the real thing!"
A.A.C.
"The Final Crusade has commenced - Grab a Jack Daniels/Coca-Cola and a ham sandwich, and get with it!"
No wonder they are so upset! I learned to read arabic yesterday. Here's what it says:
allah was a rock and mohammad was a piggy-wig!
It's ludicrous to imagine far back in 1886 a back-room chemist and his partner were evilly plotted to work a hidden anti-Muslim statement into a soft drink label. Those early Coke men had no reason to suppose that their concoction would someday come to be marketed internationally, in far-flung lands they'd never themselves visit, or that the dashed-off script of one of them would continue to adorn the product more than a century after it was first penned. Yet to give the rumor any credence, one has to believe all of that.
http://www.snopes.com/cokelore/islam.asp
(Islam, the place you go when the psych ward has no vacancies!)
Oh, please please can I join in? A Jack Daniels and Coke and a ham sandwich! It's the Real Thing.
The Quran IS a desecration of anything holy and decent..
Two years for drawing a cartoon? The Left is insane. But we knew that.
I couldn't remember which one it was, as I've heard so many differing versions of this on the RoP sites. Seems even they can't keep up with it either:
Cola wars as Coke moves on Baghdad
Abu Ream, a shop owner in Baghdad, repeated a widespread conspiracy theory: "If you hold up a Coke can to the mirror, the writing says 'No Allah'," Mr Ream said. "Or maybe 'No Mohammad'. I can't remember which."
Nevermind the note at Coca Colas own site (No Jizya for you! Take that tin foil turban off your head!)
More recently, in May 2000, the Grand Mufti of Al-Azhar (the Islamic world's foremost institute) Sheikh Nasr Farid Wassel, said that "the trademark does not injure Islam or Muslims directly or indirectly." Moreover, he stated that Islam is against "the propagation of empty rumors and intended lies that affect either public or private interests."
Now if that was a fatwa: 'Islam is against "the propagation of empty rumors and intended lies that affect either public or private interests."'
THEN ISLAM WOULD JUST HAVE TO CURL UP ITS TOES AND ADMIT IT WAS DEAD, WOULDN'T IT?
And, on second thoughts, I hope I haven't been too hard on pigs. They really really have a lot more to offer the world than mohammad did.
If y'all have some spare time and want to check out a whole collection of islamic lies and conspiracy theories, head on over to the "missionislam.com" website.
Try the "controversial issues" or "new world order" tabs on the left for a whole host of articles. I will not link directly from here. They have article on the new world order, who is the evil Dajjal, the illuminati, end of days, evil Zionist savagery, and of course how the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion is true!
The "islam and science" link is pure humor.. they had me snorting coffee out of my nose as I was reading thru it.
Get this - the lil charmers also have a kids section... gotta start that islamic brainwashing early, y'know.
Now if that was a fatwa: 'Islam is against "the propagation of empty rumors and intended lies that affect either public or private interests."THEN ISLAM WOULD JUST HAVE TO CURL UP ITS TOES AND ADMIT IT WAS DEAD, WOULDN'T IT?
Bingo! LOL. Now try and keep that thought in your head whenever you have time check out the missionislam.com site. ;o)
www.missionislam.com
Who is the Evil Dajjal (the anti-Christ): Ubadah bin Saamit radhiyallahu anhu once said, "I have explained Dajjal to you but I fear that you might not have understood. Maseeh Dajjal will be short, and his legs will be crooked. The hair on his head will be extremely twisted. He will have one eye (with which he can see, and this is the protruding eye about which other ahadeeth inform us) while his other eye will be totally flat. It will neither be deep (in its socket) nor protruding.
WELL, THAT'S A RELIEF, HE SHOULDN'T BE TOO HARD TO SPOT!
Or a more modern version...
Islam, because it is a cheap fabrication, makes its devout adherents into pathological liars. They live in an upside down world that leaves them devoid of the confidence that they are living the Truth and are showing the Truth to the world...hence the ease by which they are offended by the slightest criticism.
It is the sensitivity of islam...and the fact that it must be maintained by violence...that underscores the truth about islam.
It is, of course, a lie.
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