After the recent kerfuffle with the (non)depiction of the Islamic prophet Muhammed on (lame) TV show South Park, a couple of web-based initiatives to draw Muhammad have sprung up.
The first is being promoted by YouTube user NonStampCollector. Every YouTuber is being encouraged to draw a non-offensive stick figure and call him Muhammed. The campaign is called Have You Seen This Man? and I hope all those with YouTube accounts get into it.
The second is being promoted by a group calling themselves Citizens Against Citizens Against Humor. They are also encouraging posting of non-offensive Muhammad drawings to sites all across the internet. The cartoonist behind this movement is Molly Norris, and she has declared May 20th Everybody Draw Mohammed Day.
I love this idea and will be doing my own drawing closer to the 20th. In order to show as much deference as possible to Muhammed and his modern followers I'll be copying an old piece of Islamic art which depicts Muhammed preaching to some of his earlier converts. The prohibition against drawing Muhammed didn't arise until the 16th century and has only been sporadically enforced since then. There is actually quite a rich history of Islamic medieval art which shows Muhammed with a full view of his facial features. Claims that drawing Muhammed has always been considered offensive are completely false.
I can imagine one objection to these campaigns might be that we ought not cause offense to our muslim brethren. In normal situations I would agree that it's better to play it safe rather than to set out to deliberately annoy someone. However, Islam has repeatedly demonstrated that it will over-react to even mild satire in a completely unacceptable way. Consider the riots and race-based pogroms that occurred after Jyllands-Posten printed 12 Muhammed cartoons in 2005. Secularists dragged Christianity, kicking and screaming, into the 21st century and now it's time to give Islam a little remedial schooling. A creative arts lesson should be an easy place to start.
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