After Charlie Hebdo: Why the Efforts of Extreme Fundamentalists Are Futile
http://www.alternet.org/culture/after-charlie-hebdo-why-efforts-extreme-fundamentalists-are-futile
The fatal shootings at the headquarters of the satirical French magazine, Charlie Hebdo, make one thing very clear: Extreme fundamentalists are desperate to control our information environment. In todays digital world, these efforts will only prove to be futile.
For individuals who adhere strictly to the literal scripture of a faith, be it Islam, Judaism, Christianity or Bokononism, the separation of the secular (worldly) from the divine (God) is central. For such individuals, debasing or trivializing the sacred through irony or art is unnatural and immoral. Through the act of play or even through mere representation of the divine we, mortals, impose our own meaning on an idea or concept. And in so doing, we reduce the distance, bringing ourselves closer to God, or bringing God down closer to us, depending upon how you view it.
Interestingly, the main religious texts of Islam, Judaism, and Christianity (whose combined followers constitute about half of the worlds population) seem to share this concern, as all discourage the representation of the divine in the secular world. And were not even talking about trivializing the divine through humor or play. Were talking about a prohibition of any worldly reconstruction of the sacred.
Like most religious texts, the Quran warns against idolatry, or the worship of false prophets. But, among Sunni Muslims, whose faith centers around not only the Quran, but also the spiritual readings of the hadiths, the rules surrounding symbolic representation through visual imagery are even broader and the warnings are even more dire. Verily the most grievously tormented people amongst the denizens of Hell on the Day of Resurrection would be the painters of pictures.