Yup, you read that right. If you didn’t know, today has been designated Everyone Draw Mohammad Day. It’s an act of rebellion standing up for free speech in the face of terrorism.
Everyone has the right to believe whatever they wish, but noone has the right to impose those beliefs on others or to limit free speech.
So without further ado, here is my Mohammad. The one on the far left isn’t Mohammad, the one on the far right is. How many of these images are blasphemous? Where do you draw the line?
If you found me searching for the lyrics to the children's song, you can find them here.
I am a researcher in bionanotechnology currently living and working in Tokyo. I moved out here nearly three years ago, against my better judgement but in search of adventure. It has certainly been an adventure and not one I would have missed for the world.
I am trying to retrain as a designer and you may see the odd example of my work appear here as I progress.
I also indulge in opinionated rambling.
Tis funny, he doesnt look like a guy who raped a 9 year old girl….but then I guess you cant tell by looking.
Thanks for the book.
Well, as I can’t draw people (or anything) from memory, technically that’s just some poor guy who happens to be the top hit if you do a Google image search for “man in turban”. He probably doesn’t rape 9 year olds.
And no – thank you. It’s a good book, I enjoyed it.
Love it!
Being a child of the 60′s, I draw the line at the smiley face. I always hated that thing!
Hah, genius.
I wonder if blasphemy is an analogue or digital thing?
Very clever idea and good artwork.
Some muslim denominations shun drawing *any* people’s faces, so to them the line would be to the left of the picture.
Incidentally, the rightmost Muhammad looks a bit like PZ Myers who also linked to your blog.
You didn’t go far enough to the left: A circle, a circle with two or three dots…
Oddly, the middle of the range is most likely to be considered blasphemous. The leftmost is so abstract as to be anonymous. The rightmost is clearly an image, offending to some extreme radicals, but it’s a classy, respectful image. The ones in the middle might be taken to be deliberately crude caricatures. In the context of a political cartoon, a crude caricature of anyone might be taken to be a deliberate attempt to offend.
noone has the right to impose those beliefs on others or to limit free speech.
Yes, though nonviolently taking umbrage is unobjectionable.
It’s seems the most important thing in determining blasphemy is intent. Because no-one knows what he looked like, if it isn’t intended to be Mo, you’re off the hook. As I specified that the drawing on the far left ISN’T him, I’m afraid you can’t draw the line there (unless for reasons of hating smiley faces, which I admit might be fair enough).
And, yes, umbrage is both expected and accepted.
The second from the left looks rather french. Ho ho!
my rendition:
@:)–MOHAMMAD—<
Wonderful insight:-)