
Muhammad at the Ka’aba, a 16th-century Ottoman miniature: posted out of hatred?
Jihad Watch reader Brian has sent me this most interesting message about the attempt by Muslim Wikipedia readers to impose Islamic sensibilities upon non-Muslims:
Mr. Spencer:
I thought you might be interested in the “debate” that rages on this Wikipedia page.
The “discussion” consists of outraged Muslims periodically posting “requests” such as:
In Islam, depiction of ANY one of the prophets in the form of pictures and so forth is prohibited. What is your basis for not removing it? I’d like to amicably ask for the removal of the prophet’s pictures. I find some of the pictures to be pretty insulting. I do believe that some of the pictures were posted not out of hatred and possibly simply due to the love of knowledge. But the priority would be not to offend people of different faith. “”Preceding unsigned comment added by Helmihamid (talk “¢ contribs) 09:28, 29 November 2008 (UTC)
This is typically met with some well-meaning and clueless Wiki-user answering good-naturedly that Wikipedia is not censored based on religious beliefs, and that many of the people who view Wikipedia are not Muslims, and therefore should not be restricted by iconoclastic Islamic precepts.
What is amazing to me is that no matter how often these “requests” are posted (see the extensive archives), and no matter how many times the same Islamic arguments are made, the affable but clueless Wikipedians fail to understand the nature of the demands being made upon them. They foolishly believe that the “request”-makers are unaware of the totalitarian nature of their demands, and blind themselves to posts like this, which seem pretty blatantly threatening to me:
please remove the pics of prophet muhammed. it is true that we can change the settings of our browser but how can we muslims be in peace when we know that some muslims and even non muslims look at those pictures and study them accidentally or even on purpose when we know that pictures of living things are prohibited in islam? i beg you in the name of all muslims to remove those pictures because its an insult to our prophet ant our religion. please understand our feelings. no one would appreciate someone else insulting their religion. i know in this modern world pictures are common but no matter what religion is the same and we have the right to tell you what its like in islam. as you know there are stuff from non muslim biographies of prophet muhammed too and we feel its a must to remind you that in islam this is an insult. please please think about this “”Preceding unsigned comment added by 115.84.130.48 (talk) 16:49, 19 November 2008 (UTC)
I thought that, if you were unaware of this discussion, it might interest you and possibly be something worth blogging about on Jihad Watch, your well-justified animosity to Wikipedia notwithstanding.
Regards,
Brian