Fatwa Banning Snowmen

gvidas · 01-13-2015, 06:44 PM

Some backstory:

Islam originated during a time of extreme polytheism. There was a god for just about everything. People were very bullish on gods.

Mecca was a trading hub. You'd want to pray for good weather, and a healthy camel, and favorable negotiation, etc, before your trip. So the local shrine (the Kaa'ba, that weird black cube that Muslims circumnavigate annually) ended up playing host to all the different regional groups' gods.

Each of these was represented in the Kaa'ba by a figurine. The place got to be pretty crowded. Mohammad came along, smashed all the figures except for the largest one, and said "there is no god but God." The rest is history.

This lead to a longstanding prohibition on representational art. Islam is staunchly monotheistic (the first ~~rule of fight club~~ Pillar of Islam is "there is no god but God and Mohammad is his prophet"). One way to strongly define monotheism is by negating polytheism ("there is no god but God and Mohammad is his prophet"). Thus, things that resemble polytheism or the veneration of false idols (anything but God) is strongly discouraged.

Skip ahead a few hundred years, and the Muslim world has a strong tradition of calligraphy, poetry, architecture, and music, but not much else going on art-wise. In the same way that interpreting "you shall not boil a kid in its mothers milk" with an eye towards erring on the side of caution lead to a lot of people having two kitchens in a single-family dwelling but no cheeseburgers, the traditional response has been to ensure a clear path to heaven by not creating anything representational of living beings.

(this is, btw, why the Charlie Hebdo cartoons were especially offensive: confusing Mohammad for God, by idolizing him, is a sore point. Creating a representation of him (even a positive one) rubs some salt in this, nevermind being deliberately offensive about it.)

So, yeah, "muslims! arabia! snowmen! ha, ha!"

But the point is: figurative art is prohibited in conservative circles because it resembles idolatry.

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01-13-2015, 06:44 PM	#2
gvidas Hoodoo Guru Join Date: Jul 2009 Posts: 286	Some backstory: Islam originated during a time of extreme polytheism. There was a god for just about everything. People were very bullish on gods. Mecca was a trading hub. You'd want to pray for good weather, and a healthy camel, and favorable negotiation, etc, before your trip. So the local shrine (the Kaa'ba, that weird black cube that Muslims circumnavigate annually) ended up playing host to all the different regional groups' gods. Each of these was represented in the Kaa'ba by a figurine. The place got to be pretty crowded. Mohammad came along, smashed all the figures except for the largest one, and said "there is no god but God." The rest is history. This lead to a longstanding prohibition on representational art. Islam is staunchly monotheistic (the first ~~rule of fight club~~ Pillar of Islam is "there is no god but God and Mohammad is his prophet"). One way to strongly define monotheism is by negating polytheism ("there is no god but God and Mohammad is his prophet"). Thus, things that resemble polytheism or the veneration of false idols (anything but God) is strongly discouraged. Skip ahead a few hundred years, and the Muslim world has a strong tradition of calligraphy, poetry, architecture, and music, but not much else going on art-wise. In the same way that interpreting "you shall not boil a kid in its mothers milk" with an eye towards erring on the side of caution lead to a lot of people having two kitchens in a single-family dwelling but no cheeseburgers, the traditional response has been to ensure a clear path to heaven by not creating anything representational of living beings. (this is, btw, why the Charlie Hebdo cartoons were especially offensive: confusing Mohammad for God, by idolizing him, is a sore point. Creating a representation of him (even a positive one) rubs some salt in this, nevermind being deliberately offensive about it.) So, yeah, "muslims! arabia! snowmen! ha, ha!" But the point is: figurative art is prohibited in conservative circles because it resembles idolatry.

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