Dear en,
As I write, protests at Batley Grammar School have been in the news, against a lesson in which cartoons of Muhammad were shown.
There are many details of this particular incident which have not emerged with much clarity, and they may never do so. However, the issue of images of Muhammad is a recurring one, so it is worth thinking through a Christian position. May I suggest that two points need to be held in balance?
In the first place, I find it hard to conceive of a good motive for making or showing images of Muhammad. Everyone knows such images cause massive hurt and offence to Muslim people, and love does not hurt for no good reason. Offence inflames tensions and thereby hinders rational debate. How does anyone benefit from that? Some with a secular mindset may want to use such images as an assertion of their freedom and to show that they refuse to be intimidated by the sometimes violent response. But Christians should know better than to use their freedom as an excuse for evil (1 Peter 2:16).
Secondly, it seems fair to say that this is an area where the concept of honour plays a huge part. Images of Muhammad are regarded by Muslims as insulting to him, and presumably, by extension, to Allah whose prophet they believe him to be. They believe a slight is done to his honour by depicting him. Is there not a place for saying, with all humility: ‘Can Allah not look after his own honour, and the honour of his own Prophet?’ I think of a passage like Judges 6 where Gideon destroys his father’s altar of Baal. The neighbours are fuming but Joash, whose sense of proportion seems to have been restored by the incident, says: ‘Would you plead for Baal? … If he is a god, let him plead for himself, because his altar has been torn down’ (v.31). Similarly, we might say, with compassion: ‘If Allah is God, let him defend himself when he is insulted.’
I am especially anxious to underline that point 2 does not negate point 1, as intemperate souls will readily believe. The destruction of Baal’s altar took place in the community of Yahweh’s covenant people. This, and countless other passages, absolutely mandates us to abolish all traces of honour done to other gods from within the church. But the world is a different matter. The wheat and tares grow together until the harvest – not least, because this gives time for repentance and turning to the true God (Acts 17:30-31).
With thanks for all your work,
Yours sincerely,
Andrew Wheeler
Chorley
