Yet another stupid attempt to show islam in a positive light.
Hat tip to Chris for sending this in.
Surah 44:10 says, “Wait for the day when the sky will pour down visible smoke, enveloping all men: a dreadful scourge.” The illustration shows the World Trade Center billowing smoke. I am sure most of you are outraged by the thought of an American Gallery phrasing murderers but muslims see it as proof that we are weak, ungodly and the gallery knows keeping muslims happy is safer than pissing them off.
Sharon Mizota, 23 August, 2009, Los Angeles Times
There’s a long tradition of illustrating scenes from the Bible — even a version of Genesis by alternative comics master R. Crumb. But the Koran, which Muslims consider to be the holy word of God, has never incorporated images of people or animals, according to Linda Komaroff, curator of Islamic art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
-This is a good place to point out the Christian God and the islamic god are not one and the same.
“It simply wasn’t the kind of thing that would come up,” she said. “In Islam, like Judaism, there’s one invisible god that’s everywhere, that can’t be seen and can’t even be comprehended.” As a result, there was no need to develop figurative imagery for religious purposes. The Koran, said Komaroff, is regularly decorated with geometric or vegetal patterns, but she has seen only one example that contains more representational imagery. It depicts the facade of a mosque.
-The real reason the koran is not illustrated is it would be impossible without showing mohammed in the act of pedophilia, rape and murder. His crimes are hard enough to read no one wants to view them.
Now, Long Beach artist Sandow Birk has challenged that centuries-old tradition. His series of works on paper, “American Qur’an,” is an English-language version of the central text of Islam, illustrated with scenes from contemporary American life. Selections from the project, which is ongoing and will eventually include more than 300 pages, will be on view at Catharine Clark Gallery in San Francisco starting Sept. 5 and at Koplin Del Rio gallery in Culver City as of Sept. 8.
-This is a free speech issue they have the right to display the Americanized version of that evil book. You have the right to ignore this or you can call or email the galleries and raise some hell. I doubt many of our readers are going to call and thank them.
Executed in ink and gouache in an understated, realist style, many of the 16- by- 24-inch works depict everyday sights — urban street life, office workers in their cubicles, a pregnant couple in their front yard. Others represent more historic moments, such as the smoking towers of the World Trade Center or a funeral with a casket draped in a U.S. flag. In the center of each image are two neatly framed boxes containing the text, which is hand-lettered in a font reminiscent of graffiti writing.
-They need to add pictures of crimes committed in allah’s name, pictures of child abuse and honor killings. Anything less is not representative of American islam.
Although the Koran does not prohibit the creation of images, it does contain an injunction against the making of idols, and the faith’s second most important text, the hadith, includes additional restrictions on the use of figurative imagery, said Komaroff. Whether “American Qur’an” violates these decrees seems to be a matter of interpretation.
-It certainly violates common sense but I doubt you will see a single muslim protest this.
Birk was not available for comment, but a statement on Koplin Del Rio’s website said that although he followed “traditional guidelines” for color, ‘American Qur’an’ is not to be considered a ‘Holyformatting and decoration, “ Qur’an’ in that it does not contain the original text in Arabic.”
-A stupid statement when most of the worlds muslims cannot speak or read arabic. I have read the koran and found not a single “holy” word. In any language it is disgusting.
Komaroff had doubts about this claim. The Koran, she said, “wasn’t meant to be restricted to those who could only understand or read Arabic. It was meant to be a universal message. So I don’t know that it’s correct to say if you render it in English that it takes away its sacredness.”
-Just so you know-the evil koran is found in hundreds of languages and dialects. It stinks in all of them. There are plenty of English translations available if you can prove me wrong, then do so. Read any page at random and the chances are you will find a call for violence and intolerance, hardly what I would call “holy”.
Mohammad Qureshi, an administrator at the Islamic Center of Southern California, had a stronger reaction. “That is not acceptable at all,” he said, after viewing images of the project on Birk’s website. He was particularly concerned about images of a liquor store and a woman he described as “half-naked.” Although he did not seem overtly angered by the images, he definitely thought they would be offensive to Muslims.
-The image of the burning towers was ok? I think they should show a seventh century pedophile (mohammed) raping a nine year old, now that is offensive.
Controversy is familiar terrain for Birk, who for the last 20 years has used art historical references to address contemporary social issues, creating ironic, sometimes surreal images of gang culture, prisons and the war in Iraq. A native of Orange County and a 1988 graduate of the Otis College of Art and Design, he is well known on the West Coast and has a growing international profile. Many of his projects have involved extensive periods of research and travel, and his interest in the Koran stems from his visits to Muslim countries and to prominent collections of Islamic art over the last 10 years.
Yet “American Qur’an” is a bit of a departure for the artist in that its intent is neither ironic nor critical, said Darius Spieth, an associate professor of art history at Louisiana State University who has followed Birk’s career for more than a decade.
-Controversy sells and that started this mess but attempts to appease muslims has also caused a few people to be hunted down by allah’s minions. Hopefully none of the mohammed worshipers gets offended enough to cause anyone any harm.
“What he’s after is more of an educational project,” Spieth said. “Although Islam is the fastest-growing religion in the U.S. currently, most Americans do know relatively little about it, and I think that’s also kind of his mission.”
-We have busted the myth of islam being the fastest growing religion many times. More importantly, the other statement is also a lie. Americans are more aware of islam than ever before. The islamic world has spent billions to hide the crimes of islam but they can not rewrite their historical texts, change the behavior of their current crop of minions or pretend they are just like everyone else when the followers of the worlds best known pedophile daily prove themselves to be different, less law abiding, more violent and less tolerant of others.
