Australian Christians Riot over Blasphemous Art
Australian artists feared for their lives when Christians, after Wednesday night choir practice, took to the streets, burning cars and smashing windows in protest over their deeply blasphemous artwork.
Investigators are attempting to determine why the cars and windows were held responsible for the artist’s work.
The blasphemous art, a status of the Virgin Mary wearing a burqa and a photo of Jesus that changes into Osama bin Laden, were entries into the Blake Prize for religious art.
The rioting Christians…oh wait a minute…
Actually, no Christians rioted at all. As a matter of fact, there was actually little response to the blasphemous “art”.
You see, Christians don’t respond to affronts to God by rioting and killing people. Can you think of a group that does respond that way every time they even slightly suspect that their “god”, “prophet” or “holy book” is desecrated? I’ll give you hint: it starts with the letter “Islam”.
The head of Australia’s Islamic Council believes a statue of the Virgin Mary shrouded in a burqa is not offensive, because it shows a key female figure of Islam in the modest fashion required of all Muslim women.
Prime Minister John Howard yesterday described as “gratuitously offensive” the statue and another artwork depicting a holographic image of Osama bin Laden that morphed into an image of Jesus Christ.
The artworks were entries into the Blake Prize for religious art.
But Australian Federation of Islamic Councils president Ikebal Patel said the statue was “not at all offensive”, because both the Virgin Mary and Jesus were revered figures in Islam. “So [Mary wearing a burqa is] no different to how our mothers and sisters are expected to be modest in their dressing,” he said.
But Mr Patel said he was affronted by the image of bin Laden’s face blending into that of Jesus, who is deemed a prophet in Islam. “You have a revered prophet of Islam being equated to somebody like Osama bin Laden. “Also in Islam, we don’t have any paintings or drawings depicting any of our prophets, so I find it quite offensive.”
The Archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal George Pell, said: “As a person of faith and religious background I think it’s important to reflect on the icons of our faiths. Unfortunately, some contemporary art is tedious and trivial. These couple of works demonstrate this. Regrettably, attempts to insult Jesus and Mary have become common in recent years, even predictable. Too often it seems that the only quality which makes something art is the adolescent desire to shock. If this is the best the Blake Prize can do, it has probably outlived its usefulness.”
Did you happen to notice how the article was written. The so-called “unbiased” press started the article by quoting what a Muslim thought about art that is offensive to Christians. It wasn’t until the end that we actually learn what Christians think about the affront to our religious figures. Christians are insulted, so what does the press do? It runs out and interviews a Muslim. What kind of logic is that??
September 4th, 2008 at 11:17 pm
it’s wrong to replace Jesus’s face with Osama’s… the muslims think it’s not offensive, wait till someone draws the Prophet Muhammad’s like what happened recently.
December 1st, 2008 at 9:46 am
asalamoalaikum. what u jew idiots have done have passed. i will take u people on the day of judgement. there mill be you me and the GOD. so hope to meet u there. bye
December 1st, 2008 at 12:29 pm
bilal,
Please learn English and come back when you can converse intelligently.
December 1st, 2008 at 11:10 pm
Bilal:
What is “u jew idiot”? And WHAT is aslamoalaikum? Are you part Hawaiian?
If you want to learn English, watch “Wheel of Fortune”. You’ll be able to buy a vowel and every consonant could be worth $500.
December 2nd, 2008 at 8:34 am
AsalamoAlaikum appears to be some kind of greeting exchanged between Muslims. I have not found a direct translation of it yet, but it may be akin to “peace” or “path to peace”. Maybe someone can tell us for sure.
I also didn’t quite understand Bilal’s comment. I don’t have a problem with someone who doesn’t speak English very well commenting here, but I must admit that “u jew idiot” didn’t set the tone of the comment in a very positive light.
December 2nd, 2008 at 8:44 am
I wasn’t making fun of the fact that he can’t speak English very well. I don’t speak Arabic at all.
But, although his English is limited, he sure knows how to use it to deride Jewish people and use derogatory name calling techniques.
That’s why I jumped on him.
December 2nd, 2008 at 8:52 am
I wasn’t criticizing you or Beth for mentioning his command of English. He certainly knows how to start a comment on the “wrong” foot though!!
December 2nd, 2008 at 12:39 pm
No problem Steve. Thanks.
April 16th, 2009 at 4:48 pm
So I stumbled upon this and I have two comments – to say that Christians don’t riot and kill people in response to blasphemy is not entirely true. People that consider themselves Christians, but by your standards are not Christians do in fact riot and kill and get angry, etc. That isn’t to say that all Christians do this. However, to say that Muslims do riot and kill in response to this blasphemy (by the way, this isn’t at all blasphemous at all by a Muslim’s standards), is also wrong. Here again, people that consider themselves Muslim, but aren’t Muslim by definition of Islam, do riot and kill and get angry, etc. Bad Christians exist as do bad Muslims. And yes, Muslims would think that an image of Muhammad is blasphemous as they believe any depiction of him is blasphemous. To insult anyone’s religion is an insult to your own. Most true Muslims believe this, and Christians too!
April 17th, 2009 at 1:23 am
Thank you “hmm…” very well said!
April 17th, 2009 at 7:10 am
hmm…
I agree that Christians also do bad things. The point of the post is to highlight that instead of denouncing the insults against their prophet, many Muslims, mostly overseas, take to the streets and riot, hurting innocent people who had nothing to do with the problem. They damage property of people who didn’t cause the insult. It’s a mob mentality.
Would you be willing to post links to similar instances of Christian rioting for the same reason? There may be examples, and we are certainly interesting knowing about them. If you have time, please take a moment to research them and post them here.
Thanks and God Bless.
May 29th, 2009 at 12:29 am
hmm,
Very good point. Some house cleaning in order?
Have you noticed, however that the violent subset of Islam more closely adheres to their Scriptures than the peaceful ‘majority’ and that the subset of self-named Christians most closely adhering to their Scriptures are not the violent ones?
Also, the author’s point remains. Christianity is not by nature a violent religion, whereas Islam is. It is like this because Islam is and has always been religio-political. Right from their prophet Mohamed (PBUH). Medina Mecca. Christianity, from it’s inception, however, was apolitical.
I’m not sure what us “real” Christians can do about the violent subset. How do we clean house, other than disown and rebuke them, as we have done? The only other solution is a violent purge but… not this weekend.
Thanks,
Michael Hutton