GOD “DOESN’T LIKE PEOPLE TO DRAW”

By Michelle Malkin  •  February 22, 2006 09:25 AM

Via the St. Paul Pioneer Press (hat tip-LGF):

As violent protests over caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad continue around the world, a St. Paul charter school is quietly negotiating the delicate question of how to teach art to Muslims.

Any depiction of God and his prophets is considered offensive under Islam, and disrespectful representations are even worse, as the recent worldwide outrage over the Danish cartoons has shown. But some Muslims also refrain from producing images of ordinary human beings and animals, citing Islamic teaching.

That presented a challenge for Higher Ground Academy, a K-12 school just west of Central High School on Marshall Avenue that has about 450 students. About 70 percent of them are Muslim immigrants from eastern Africa.

Executive Director Bill Wilson said he had concerns for some time about how to reconcile the school’s art curriculum with the views of Muslim families, but the departure of the art teacher at the end of last school year gave him a window to act. This fall, he hired ArtStart, a St. Paul-based nonprofit organization, to offer more options for about 150 kindergartners through second-graders, including visual arts and drumming. But parents were still upset that their children were drawing figures, Wilson said, and some pulled their children out of art class altogether.

Wilson then sat down with teacher and parent liaison Abdirahman Sheikh Omar Ahmad, who also is the imam at an Islamic center in Minneapolis, to work with ArtStart in determining how to meet state standards without running afoul of Muslim doctrine…

…Second-grader Hawi Muhammed said her parents don’t mind if she draws people once in a while, but “God … doesn’t like people to draw a lot,” she said.

But some depictions of humans–for example, effigies and caricatures, are apparently acceptable:

effigy.jpg

effigy2.jpg

caricature.jpg

And so are these:

sharon.jpg

arabcart.jpg

Go figure.

~ For the latest breaking news, be sure to join Michelle's e-mail list ~
Posted in: Danish Cartoons

See what others have said

Note from Michelle: This section is for comments from michellemalkin.com's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that I agree with or endorse any particular comment just because I let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with my terms of use may lose his or her posting privilege.

You must be logged in to post a comment.


Bomb attack in Sweden: The Cartoon Jihad never ends; Updated

December 12, 2010 10:06 AM by Michelle Malkin

58 Comments

“Now, your children — daughters and sisters — will die like our brothers and sisters and children die.”

Dhimmitude and Draw Mohammed Day

May 20, 2010 09:46 AM by Michelle Malkin

143 Comments

“Kill these all KAFIR”

May 18, 2010 09:44 AM by Michelle Malkin

51 Comments

Not again: Another Mohammed Cartoon conflagration

February 12, 2010 12:04 PM by Michelle Malkin

67 Comments

It never ends: Jihadi attack on Danish cartoonist

January 1, 2010 11:52 PM by Michelle Malkin

436 Comments


Categories: Danish Cartoons

Babalu Blog

» Greece is Burning
Follow me on Twitter Follow me on Facebook