(NEWSPAPER) ARTICLES
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How do you deal with pictures of
the prophet Mohammed?
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Museums and universities grapple with the question of how to deal with images of the Prophet Mohammed. Religious scholar Pooyan Tamimi Arab draws a line.

Since when do Muslims actually portray the Prophet?
“Only after the great conquests of the Mongols in the Islamic world, in the thirteenth century. Not that mosques were immediately full of it, but: images occurred during that period. At first the Prophet was simply depicted with his face, as a historical figure.

"It was not until the sixteenth century that he was first depicted veiled, during the Miraj, the mystical night sky journey of the Prophet. In addition, you can often recognize him by a flame halo around the head, which served to indicate his holiness.
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“Not only the images of the Prophet increase in value in response to that iconoclasm. After the attacks on the Twin Towers of September 11, Islamic art in general suddenly became much more important. Since then, the Louvre in Paris has opened a new wing, the MET in New York the same. There have been exhibitions in the past, but the wing that opened in New York in 2011? That is of a different order - no back room, but in terms of prominence comparable to the wing where Greek statues stand. ”

How do you explain that reaction?
“We, as in politicians, museums, journalists, et cetera, apparently find a diverse visual culture important. But that's not all. We also expect something from those images. I am still investigating what that exactly is. It seems as if, in addition to seeing a danger in them, we also think that those images can have a healing effect.

"Somehow, purely by displaying them, and as part of a 'cosmopolitan Islam', those images should improve something in our society. Not only for Muslims, but also and especially for non-Muslims."
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Pictures That Divide: An Inquiry into Islam, Visual Culture and Diversity
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Our time is one of visual abundance. Every day we all create an unimaginable amount of images, especially images of each other. But these “representations”, as humanities scholars call them, say something not only about the people portrayed, but especially something about the viewpoint of the makers and about the relationship between the “Self” and the “Other”.

In my research “Pictures That Divide”, an investigation into Islam, visual culture and diversity in the Netherlands, I try to understand contemporary society on the basis of “pictures”. Of the many pictures that you could study, I have chosen the pictures that we can certainly disagree with, pictures and accompanying talk that divide us. It is no coincidence that the word “diversity”, which was used in ancient times to indicate religious differences, comes from the Latin divertere, making something move in opposite or different directions. Pictures, I think, are extremely suitable for investigating this dividing diversity: how do people of different origins and beliefs identify themselves in daily life with different ways of looking and being seen? And what role do images play in shaping our mutual relationships?
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ARTICLES ABOUT THE HISTORY, MORAL, AND DEPICTING
THE PROPHET MOHAMMAD

the Prophet thought the portraits were dangerous
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Why does Allah have such difficulty with satirical portraits of his prophet? Why do extremists like those in Paris think they should avenge satire?

Final destination hell
Sculptors try to emulate God, the hadith warned. On Judgment Day, they will fall through the basket. Allah will then ask them to revive their images. Of course they cannot. Their final destination is hell.

This aversion to polytheism was not new. In the Ten Commandments, the god Yahweh had already issued a similar warning. "Don't make idols," he warned Moses. "Not a picture of anything that is in heaven above or of anything below on the earth or in the water beneath the earth. Do not kneel down before such images, do not worship them, for I the Lord your God will not tolerate other gods. next to me." No doubt that warning echoed in the early days of Islam, for many early Muslims were converted Jews.

Later generations of Muslims took these prohibitions heavily. Many came to see portraying the prophet as a risk. Whoever painted the prophet was just one step away from person-worship, and that was blasphemy. Worship belonged only to God. Muhammad, important as he was, was only human. Images quickly became taboo.

Sunnis, who are the largest movement within Islam, started to depict the prophet as a rose. That rose is said to have originated from the scented drops of sweat of the prophet.

Not everyone adhered to those prohibitions. Shia and Sufi Muslims in particular have a rich tradition of Muhammad paintings and illustrations. Much of their work was lost during wars, but not all. Popular were the illustrations of Mohammed on Burak, a horse with the head of a woman, wings of an angel and the tail of a peacock (see image).
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