As I have often noted and as I just experienced again firsthand at Stanford University, universities today are not institutions of higher learning. They’re just radioactive wastelands of hard-Left indoctrination. It is no surprise in the least that John Jay College would feature this artwork. What would be surprising would be if it stood up for the freedom of speech and hosted a Muhammad artwork retrospective, such as what we presented in Garland, Texas in May 2015: art depicting Muhammad, by Muslims and non-Muslims, throughout the history of Islam.
But that would not be Sharia-compliant. This exhibit is. Note that none of the Guantanamo jihadis’ artworks feature depictions of the human form. That would offend Allah, and John Jay College would never dream of doing such a thing.
“Pentagon, NYC college feud over gallery of artwork made by suspected terrorists,” by Isabel Vincent, New York Post, November 25, 2017 (thanks to the Geller Report):
A New York City college is at war with the Pentagon over exhibiting and helping to hawk artwork created by suspected al Qaeda terrorists at Guantanamo Bay.
Thirty-six paintings and sculptures by Gitmo detainees have been on display at John Jay College, but the Department of Defense now wants them destroyed, and administrators at the taxpayer-funded school are bracing for a possible seizure of the works.
In the last few days, more than 350 people rushed to sign a John Jay professor’s online petition protesting a Pentagon policy that would see most of the Gitmo Picassos’ works incinerated.
“Let them know that burning art is something done by fascist and terrorist regimes — but not by the American people,” reads the petition to the Department of Defense, President Trump and the Joint Task Force Guantanamo, among other branches of the military. “Art is an expression of the soul. This art belongs to the detainees and to the world.”
The exhibit, titled “Ode to the Sea: Art from Guantanamo Bay,” opened Oct. 2 on the Upper West Side campus of John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Curated by John Jay art crime professor Erin Thompson with archivist Paige Laino and artist and poet Charles Shields, the free exhibit is on view in the President’s Gallery until the end of January.
The exhibition catalog includes an e-mail address for people interested in buying the art.
“Please contact curator@artfromguantanamo.com if you are interested in purchasing artwork made at Guantanamo by artists who have since been cleared by military tribunals and released,” it reads.
The art was obtained through the detainees’ lawyers. Ramzi Kassem, one of the lawyers and a professor at CUNY School of Law who works with a legal clinic that represents Guantanamo detainees, recently told The Miami Herald that, as a result of the school’s exhibit, “art would not be allowed out of the prison . . . and would be incinerated instead.”
In the past, prisoners at Guantanamo could fill out a form to have their art reviewed by prison authorities for release to their lawyers. The lawyers could safeguard the work until their release or send it on to the families of the detainees. Now that process has been halted.
The Department of Defense’s abrupt change in policy has further politicized the already-controversial exhibit at John Jay.
Many 9/11 families, who had been unaware of the exhibit until they were contacted by The Post last week, expressed outrage that detainee art was being shown at a taxpayer-funded institution in the city. They also noted that many of the victims had attended John Jay.
“I can’t understand how this college in particular would allow such a thing. Where’s their decency? Where’s their dignity? . . . It’s denying and softening what happened. What’s next, hanging up the art of John Wayne Gacy?” said Michael Burke, whose brother, FDNY Capt. Billy Burke, died on 9/11 and went to John Jay.
But Thompson urges tolerance.
“I hope that people will come visit the show and see the art, because, at this point, I don’t know what will happen to it,” she told The Post. “It might go back to the artists — or it might go into an incinerator.”
The exhibit features mainly paintings of seascapes and flowers created by detainees as they were shackled at the ankle to their cell floors. Some of the suspected terrorists also sculpted and crafted model boats between 2015 and 2016.
“They created this art under strict regulations,” Thompson said. “They cannot produce violent images or anything that might contain a hidden message. Every blank sheet of paper . . . had to be inspected and cleared for use.”
While the catalog lists the works — some bearing red and black “Approved by US Forces” stamps — and provides brief descriptions of the paintings and sculptures, there is no mention of the artists’ alleged wrongdoing. The catalog was written by the three curators.
In the bio for Ahmed Rabbani, there is no mention that he is suspected of having worked for Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the architect of the 9/11 attacks.
“Detained and tortured by the CIA before arriving at Guantanamo, Rabbani has protested by undertaking years-long hunger strikes,” the copy reads, introducing two untitled paintings — a still life and a painting of sets of binoculars pointed to the moon.
Other detainees, especially those from landlocked countries, seem obsessed with the ocean, and the hit 1997 disaster film “Titanic,” which they were allowed to view at the facility, the catalog says.
The sea is obscured at the Guantanamo facility behind a series of fences and tarps. In 2014, when a hurricane threatened Cuba, the tarps were taken down for a few days, wrote one of the artists in the online catalog.
“We faced one direction — toward the sea,” wrote Mansoor Adayfi, a former detainee who was accused of being an al Qaeda operative. “It felt like a little freedom to look at it. I heard an Afghan guy shout, ‘Allahu akbar.’ ”
Adayfi was released in 2016 and now lives in Serbia.
Since the artwork is on loan to the college, Thompson says potential buyers are referred to the detainees’ lawyers.
“I just pass on inquiries to lawyers,” she told The Post. “I do know that only artwork of former detainees who have been cleared of wrongdoing and released, is available.”
Thompson said prices “were in the hundreds of dollars” for works, but she did not know if any had been sold. Lawyers for the artists did not return The Post’s requests for comment.
Inmates in federal prisons are permitted to keep their artwork, and, in some cases, have been permitted to sell them….
The Critics
Families of 9/11 victims were outraged by the John Jay College art exhibit “Ode to the Sea: Art from Guantanamo Bay.”
“A lot of guys who passed away during 9/11 went to John Jay College, including my brother. I can’t understand how this college in particular would allow such a thing. Where’s their decency? Where’s their dignity? They’re delivering the completely wrong message. It’s denying and softening what happened. What’s next, hanging up the art of John Wayne Gacy?”
— Michael Burke, of The Bronx, whose brother, FDNY Capt. Billy Burke, 46, died on 9/11
“It’s like a slap in the face, completely out of nowhere. Let them display that at Guantanamo, not here. It’s a terrible precedent to set.”
— Jim McCaffrey, of Yonkers, retired FDNY lieutenant whose brother-in-law, FDNY Battalion Chief Orio Palmer, 45, died on 9/11
“I feel completely betrayed. Someone’s job should be on the line for this. Using taxpayer money to hang the artwork of criminals in our college for criminal justice makes my blood boil. This is going way too far and is rubbing our noses in the loss we have to carry with us every day.”
— Rosaleen Tallon, of Yonkers, stay-at-home mother whose brother, firefighter Sean Tallon, 26, died on 9/11
“I think it’s sick and insulting. I was down in Guantanamo and saw these guys in court. [They] have no respect for anyone. They murdered our kids and families and don’t deserve their art shown anywhere. The families weren’t consulted about this at all. It’s like having Hitler do a drawing and hanging his work up. It’s a complete disgrace. [Mayor] de Blasio and [Gov.] Cuomo should be held accountable.”
— Jim Riches (right), of Brooklyn, retired FDNY deputy chief whose son, firefighter Jimmy Riches, 29, died on 9/11
jihad3tracker says
FINDING EMAIL ADDRESSES FOR JOHN JAY TOP DOGS SHOULD BE EASY. So how about taking 10 minutes from our busy schedules to send them your opinion ???
BE SURE TO INCLUDE “HIGHLIGHTS” FROM THE SICK LIFE OF MUHAMMAD, AND HATE SPEECH IN THE QUR’AN.
Also include your own favorite truthful counter-jihad websites, AND INCLUDE THIS SENTENCE: “I EXPECT THE COURTESY OF A REPLY.”.
Linde Barrera says
The curators of this exhibit are, no doubt, trying to make a name for themselves. Here are my descriptive names for them: “Appallingly screwed-up in their heads. Disgustingly insensitive. Desperately debauched”.
James says
If that is tolerable, why not exhibit some of Hitler’s pictures ?
https://www.invaluable.co.uk/artist/hitler-adolf-qir0323fxb
cyrus basile says
The art make artists do not terrorists.
Muslims have no soul because they are devils.
I am ashamed by Italian (with American mother of Ohio) of the origins of the governor Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio.
should have shame lawyers represent monsters, but being Muslims as the defendants have no dignity indeed are arrogant and threatening as if they were defending keep girls instead of the dregs of humanity’.
if they had killed a relative of mine or brother 9/11 together with other relatives of the victims, we would not have allowed this to
the dean of the school has not abbatanza brain or wants to get publicity, but must be stopped as the instigator racial discrimination
but the president trump intervenes when?
Karen says
“….created by suspected al Qaeda terrorists at Guantanamo Bay.”
Oh, I see. They’re *suspected* terrorists. Right, thanks for clarifying that, NYPost.
I think I’d rather have one of those paintings where someone gave an elephant a brush and let them splash around a little paint for an hour. Or maybe an Elvis on velvet.
gravenimage says
John Jay College in NYC exhibiting and helping to sell artwork by al-Qaeda jihad terrorists at Guantanamo Bay
…………………………
Leftists have long championed and been fascinated by the work of criminals–especially those guilty of the most heinous crimes.
This grotesque spectacle is just more of the same. *Ugh*.
Linnte says
I agree, yet I must admit, coming from my artists mindset, I would like to see the works. Art has a way of showing the mentality and heart of a person. I’d like to see how really twisted this terrorist is. As for the “artist” profiting from any sales? All proceeds should go to the families of those victims whom he destroyed.
I wish I could sit in a Parisian Cafe and discuss this issue with Picasso and Dega!
Georg says
Great observation that this isn’t surprising.
It is less controversial to sell artwork from an al-Qaeda terrorist in NYC than it is to draw Muhammed. Just more 1984 moral inversion. There is a rather simple concept one can keep in mind which sews together a lot of seemingly bizarre and logically contradictory behavior from the left: anti-Westernism.
James says
Mohammed is basically the New Jesus, only better, so of course he mustn’t be insulted.
marble says
John Jay the college supports Muslim terrorists. John Jay, a Founding Father, “No human society has ever able to maintain both order and freedom, both cohesiveness and liberty apart from the moral precepts of the Christian Religion. Should our Republic ever forget this fundamental precept of governance, we will then be surely doomed.” B. H. Obama, a former U. S. President and many of his supporters I believe agreed with John Jay and tried/are trying to stop the United States from being a Christian nation.
Benedict says
“universities today are not institutions of higher learning” – they are institutions of higher yearning and earning:
The idea is, that if we treat Islam with benevolence, respect and admiration the violent, belligerent aspects of this ideology will fade away. But the idea, that a python, if treated like a golden retriever, will turn into a warm-blooded teddy bear with an American flag in his hand, is magic that belongs in Walt Disney fairytales of the Beauty and Beast genre. It ain’t gonna happen in real life.
gravenimage says
Benedict, I know the art world (such as it is these days).
What they are doing here is something different–the idea that “outsider art”–those by the developmentally disabled, the homeless, criminals, and terrorists is singled out as “more authentic”. Please note–this is not just finding and supporting talented people who are disadvantaged, which can be a very good thing–this is something *much darker*.
It is singling this work out as being worthy of attention *because* it was created by those beyond the pale. In the case of the developmentally disabled or homeless, this is still fairly innocent, even if it has nothing to do with the quality of the work–but in the case of criminals it is anything but.
And these perverse creeps rarely want to see art created by petty criminals like check forgers or weed dealers–instead, the worse the crime, the better. There is a cachet for artwork from Death Row prisoners.
And now, we have Jihad terrorists–grimly, this was all too predictable.
James says
Perhaps the Care Bears would be an even better analogy. Care Bear diplomacy does not work on the Muzzy-wuzzies.
Benedict says
Islam is born ugly and Islam will die ugly and no work of art can obscure this fact and alter this fate.
Flavius Claudius Iulianus says
Where were these hypocritical virtue signalers when Molly Norris was forced to go underground to stay alive?
R Russell says
Having taken a long look at the painting above it appears to me that there is a depiction representing people worshipping the Moon God. And who is the Moon God?……..
(I only use capitals for Moon God out of respect, not for the ‘God’, but out of respect for the misguided human beings who worship it.
Jim says
You believe the “artist’s” description that it is binoculars pointed at the moon. Ha ha, you fell for it. They are not allowed to have secret coded messages. But I think it looks like bullhorns on top of buildings, all proclaiming “Allahu Akbar”, one set of bullhorns a blazing hot fiery red, proclaiming the passion of the message, and perhaps sending a fiery missle as a message. They could all be missle launchers, too. Art is in the eye of the beholder. Watch how quickly the true meaning of these paintings will be proclaimed once they are released, and the taqia is no longer necessary.
Eric says
I am indeed surprised that John Jay College would host such art work. John Jay is a college where the primary focus is on law and criminal justice education. Many people in law enforcement study there. A professional organization I belong to holds seminaries there from time to time. I would like to know what the student body of John Jay feels about this exhibit.
There is a piece of a steel support beam from the World Trade Center site on permanent display in the lobby of one of John Jay’s buildings near the Tenth Avenue enterence. I was at 911. I cross my heart when ever I pass the support beam.
Eric
Pnina Judith says
If the artwork should sell it could go into a fund for Holocaust Survivors or the IDF or a victims of terrorist fund
UNCLE VLADDI says
I guess there’s no laws against profiting from the proceeds of crime, in the USA?
Tolerant gent says
“Note that none of the Guantanamo jihadis’ artworks feature depictions of the human form. That would offend Allah.” Wait, Muslims can’t ever draw or paint a human? Is this just for super-devout ones? (Imagine what would happen if anyone were to tell them about the body painting section in the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue…)
TheBuffster says
The article says that the men who did the paintings had been cleared of wrongdoing. I’d like the stories on that.