Mohammed in Hell

[Shi Huangdi]

Recently in Italy there has been a controversy over a 15th century Fresco depicting the Islamic prophet Mohammed in Hell being devoured by demons- the painting is in a Catholic church. Italian muslims have campaigned vigorously to remove this, and so far have unsucsessfully appealed to the Vatican to get rid of the painting.

I can see two sides to this one- one on hand it is deeply offensive to a large group of people and in this age that already has too much religious strife it might not be good to have such paintings around. OTOH, it is art, and moreover it is a historical artifact. And just because we might not like this doesn't mean it's bad art or that others won't like it?

So, should the Italian muslims get their way and the painting be removed?

[Thorn]

ROFLMAO, well I can say I think he is here actually... so they should keep the painting.

[Giancarlo]

I am an atheist and I say BANANA. Hehehe... now seriously I say I am not sure....

[ranskaldan]

It should be removed, and possibly relocated into a museum, and exhibited with other pagan artifacts.

[- Groucho -]

Atheist banana. It's all lunacy to me.

[Thorn]

I just realize I selected the wrong choice in the poll.... oh well... I guess it reflect my ambivalent nature.

[Kropotkin]

Since It's in a church I don't think it's a good enough reason as it's hardly something they see every day. I don't like christianity or any religion and you don't see me going around and advocating the removal of religious symbols from churches and mosques. not that anyone would listen to me, as usual.

[Wernazuma III]

I'm atheist and say they shall not remove it. Maybe it's because I'm historian.

They could possibly put a plate beneath the fresco, saying that the painting represents historical, medieval thinking and not that of today's people.

But beside that: What's so wrong about it? I mean, we all know that most Christians have Mohammed in hell, it's almost inherent in Christianity...

[germanos]

Offcourse the picture should stay right where it is.

The muslims have had there fun of detruction of other religions icons in Afghanistan lately, I say they should stay quiet for another millinium or so.

(I just hope the muslim world is just going through this stage of destruction of statues and the like, so they will arrive eventually at the Age of Enlightment..)

[Eli]

Originally posted by germanos
Offcourse the picture should stay right where it is.

The muslims have had there fun of detruction of other religions icons in Afghanistan lately, I say they should stay quiet for another millinium or so.

(I just hope the muslim world is just going through this stage of destruction of statues and the like, so they will arrive eventually at the Age of Enlightment..)

This reminds me of a nice theory concerning religions...

This theory sasy that every religion, like the average teenager, when becoming 14(centuries) old enters it's age of death and destruction.

The Jews were busy with killing each other instead of fighting an enemy, thus losing more than a million men in the war against Rome. For the Christianity, there were the crusades. And now, it's the turn of the Islam, and we're witnessing only the beginning.

[ranskaldan]

Originally posted by Eli


This reminds me of a nice theory concerning religions...

This theory sasy that every religion, like the average teenager, when becoming 14(centuries) old enters it's age of death and destruction.

The Jews were busy with killing each other instead of fighting an enemy, thus losing more than a million men in the war against Rome. For the Christianity, there were the crusades. And now, it's the turn of the Islam, and we're witnessing only the beginning.

hey...... that does sorta make sense....!

[Eli]

Germanos, your sig says :

Eli for President !

[ranskaldan]

but to the previous point: perhaps 12-1400 years is enough time for a religion to spread to a few places, experience some glory and power, decline, and then slide away into the former-superpower-getting-very-bitter stage.

Does that mean that by 3300 we'll be seeing Scientologist terrorist organizations?

[Dis]

haven't seen it


but any picture with demons in it must be cool

[Ethelred]

Originally posted by Eli


This reminds me of a nice theory concerning religions...

This theory sasy that every religion, like the average teenager, when becoming 14(centuries) old enters it's age of death and destruction.

The Jews were busy with killing each other instead of fighting an enemy, thus losing more than a million men in the war against Rome. For the Christianity, there were the crusades. And now, it's the turn of the Islam, and we're witnessing only the beginning.

A simple thought about when the First Crusade occured shows that just a bit off.