6 May 2010
May 20 is ‘Everybody Draw Mohammed Day’
Although the Seattle cartoonist has since had second thoughts, Molly Norris originally proclaimed the day as a tongue-in-cheek response to threats which led to Comedy Central‘s craven censorship of South Park‘s latest episode featuring the Muslim super hero. Canada’s Comedy Network is not even permitted to re-air the censored episode, or put it on their website (never mind the artists’ originally intended uncensored version).
The Lady Zog and North Edmonton Sculpture Workshop artists.
As an ardent believer in the necessity of free expression, especially in the face of religious intolerance, I’d like to observe the day in an appropriate manner at Common Sense. The neighbourhood Muslims, of which there are many, have never taken much notice of the gallery before, so I doubt they’d go out of their way to do so on that particular day. After all, folks who take scriptural injunctions against graven images seriously are rarely interested in art galleries.
On the other hand, what are we gonna do? Hang an exhibition of crappy drawings for activism’s sake? As an ardent believer in the necessity of art galleries that put aesthetics ahead of politics, I can’t do that.
So… suggestions?
Well, I think we should probably just have a baby that day!
May 7th, 2010 at 6:29 amYou’re probably right, but it would have been fun to do something like…
“Everybody Draw Mo’ Hammer’d” – Drinks ‘n’ Drawing at Common Sense… something like a Dr. Sketchy, I was thinking.
But, yeah, I’ll probably be too busy figuring out how to work my new human.
May 11th, 2010 at 7:45 amFYI, Molly Norris has disowned this.
May 13th, 2010 at 3:16 pmYes, those are the “second thoughts” I referred to in the first sentence.
May 13th, 2010 at 5:39 pmThe dude who set up the Facebook page in support of this, has also backed down publicly, and will not be “attending” his own “event” (not that I could gather that there was any ACTUAL event planned, other than a Facebook page).
What should we do? How about find something more interesting to do with our time.
May 17th, 2010 at 9:28 amThat doesn’t really amount to a suggestion, Russell.
“More interesting” than WHAT, exactly?
More interesting than having drinks and doing some life-drawing? Why would you think that would be particularly uninteresting, Russell. Is it the booze, or the barenaked models that you are bored by?
May 17th, 2010 at 9:37 amHow about a group exhibit with all the submissions titled “Mohammed”?
May 17th, 2010 at 12:52 pmIf it’s obtainable, have an open-house viewing of the episode amidst the life-drawing; the scene would be rebelliously promotional, which is the point, isn’t it?
May 17th, 2010 at 1:55 pmYo, Flick,I had thought about that, but then, do you saddle good work with a stupid title like “Mohammed”, or do you just grab the closest urinal and use that, since a ‘Fountain’ would make a fine portrait, given the looseness of the term “art”.
As for “open house viewing”, Ali, I figure the life drawing would be open to all comers (all who payed a nominal entry fee, maybe, to cover the model costs), but you might have to make it 18+, what with the booze and nudity (two more things the Islamofascists would deprive us of!).
Just to clarify, the event would be Everybody Draw More Hammered, so you could draw whatever you like, and as Flick suggests, title it whatever you want, too.
Alas, as Russell suggests, I’ll be busy with something more interesting, so I won’t be able to plan an event for this year. Maybe we’ll try for the 2nd annual, instead.
May 17th, 2010 at 7:20 pmFundamentalist Moslem baiting seems to have become a regular event. All of us enlightened westerners get to feel superior, a small group of Moslems get really pissed and everyone gets to dump on Islam. Again. Is it really really important to create a pictorial depiction of Mohammed? I mean, when you were a little boy, did you think “someday I’m going to study really hard and go to art school and learn how to do a depiction of Mohammed… whoever he is”?
May 18th, 2010 at 12:30 pmMaybe you haven’t been following the specifics closely enough, Russell. The controversy about the South Park episode, as the later Molly Norris cartoon makes more explicit, is that it DOESN’T even have to be a pictorial depiction of Mohammed.
May 18th, 2010 at 2:31 pmIs is “Moslem baiting” to drink booze, or to gather together publcly to draw naked models? I don’t think so, yet both are probably explicitly forbidden in certain holy books. Look up Dr. Sketchy, Russell. I don’t think that kind of thing is “Moslem baiting” in the least.
And so what if it was? Making somebody mad is ok, Russell. Even if it’s on purpose. There are bigger issues in the world than the hurt feelings of misguided people.
Maybe read the above post again, Russell. Nowhere do I suggest drawing Mohammed.
Having drinks and sketching nude models is interesting. Sketching drunk nude models is interesting. Making someone mad is… well, I do that all the time. Wasting time hurting the feelings of “misguided people”… not so interesting. But then, that’s just me.
May 20th, 2010 at 10:22 amWhatever you do, Russell, make sure you check to see you’re not hurting anyone’s feelings, lest your actions automatically be decreed a “waste” of time, by anyone…
May 20th, 2010 at 11:08 amIt would be better for you to read about Mohammed rather than Wasting time hurting the feelings of million people.
May 21st, 2010 at 10:54 pmThat’s an unsupported assertion, ‘think’.
Perhaps the opposite is true.
How can we know which of us is right?
Fortunately, we have the freedom to do both!
May 22nd, 2010 at 5:19 amThank you MC for your comment. We have minds and senses to distinct between good / bad and Right / Wrong . See the follwing link . See the follwing link to know about Mohammed http://greatestman.org/ .
May 26th, 2010 at 5:34 amI hope everybody will visit and benfit from it.
There are several errors on that webpage (in reality, being a shepherd teaches you how to lead sheep, not people, and Islam is a HORRIBLE belief system), but visiting that site was no more a waste of time than drawing an image of Mohammed. The drawing will likely be as inaccurate as the webpage! But, in both cases, it is not accuracy that matters. Rather, what matters is that we have the freedom to express ourselves, whether it is with a webpage about, or a drawing of, Mohammed!
Yay, freedom!
May 26th, 2010 at 7:23 amMC your hate to the right have blinded your heart before your eyes. This is why you started to act stupid and foolish way .
May 28th, 2010 at 2:42 pmI disagree.
May 28th, 2010 at 4:46 pmJust to clarify, I meant no disrespect to shepherds. Theirs is a noble profession.
May 28th, 2010 at 4:48 pmThat’s quite a website. Apparently Mohammed was unable to spell, because his followers are honoring the hell out of that tradition over there.
May 29th, 2010 at 6:10 amYes, to read that “God abhoes [sic] pride” at the URL “greatestman.org” is funny on multiple levels.
May 29th, 2010 at 11:53 am