Wikipedia to Mo-image petitioners: “No”
The Wikipedia article on Mohammed (the inventor of Islam (a Middle Eastern religion)) contains several ancient depictions of the soi-disant prophet. As the New York Times reports, this upsets a certain type of Muslim – the type that writes angry emails, sets fire to effigies and embassies, and starts on-line petitions that say,
In Islam picture of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and other Humans are not allowed. But Wikipedia editors are showing illustrations with face illustrated and face is veiled or white washed. But still they are offensive to Muslims. I request all brothers and sisters to sign this petitions so we can tell Wikipedia to respect the religion and remove the illustrations.
The petition currently has over 100,000 “signatures”, although many are anonymous and quite a few are obviously bogus. Like this one from “Mohamed Khant”, for example:
My sense of self-worth depends on my ability to force others to respect my religious taboos. I insist that you remove the images of Mohammed (PBUH) as soon as possible.
To their credit, Wikipedia are standing firm. They have locked down the entry, and put this notice up on the discussions page:
Important notice: Prior discussion has determined that pictures of Muhammad will not be removed from this article, and removal of pictures without discussion at Talk:Muhammad/images will be reverted. If you find these images offensive, it is possible to configure your browser not to display them; for instructions, see the FAQ.
Say what you will about Wikipedia. In this case they are showing more guts and principle than 99.9% of the mainstream media.
Interesting timing. The Register today has an interesting discussion on religious cults and Wikipedia:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/02/06/the_cult_of_wikipedia/
I guess the petition demanding that Muslims stop using mentally retarded girls as walking land mines got lost in the mail.
Tony, they’re all mentally retarded, they believe they have invisible friends
If people don’t want to see something, then don’t look at the page. No matter who you are someone is going to hate you and disaprove of who you are or what you do. If you or I try to please everyone and censure ourselves, what kind of life do we truely have?? If you do not like the art or the picture and are offended. That is your problem, not mine!
I’m glad the people at Wikipedia didn’t fold. Good for them.
Slightly OT, but for a giggle, I looked Christian Voice up on Wiki. Quite a good entry, as it happens.