Jihad Jane

A lot has already been written on the fact that Islam does not overtly forbid images of the prophet Mohamed. The Quran says nothing about it.

The real reason that there’s not supposed to be any images of Mohamed is that after he died there was a real threat of his followers trying to deify him. Mohamed himself constantly reminded people that he was just a messenger, not a divine being. After he was dead, though, a lot of ardent supporters were very likely to try to make him into some kind of demigod or saint. (Not unlike Elvis fans).

To prevent this, several Islamic schools of thought banned the use of icons or images of the prophet so that no one could worship them. It was Allah, not Mohamed, that was worthy of worship. Eventually a screen was drawn over the tomb of the prophet to prevent anyone from lighting candles there, and everyone was told that “Mohamed worship” was un-Islamic. Thus began the long history of Islamic sects banning images of Mohamed.

Flash forward to current day: The U.S. has arrested Colleen R. LaRose, affectionately known as “Jihad Jane”. This woman’s sworn oath was to kill Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks for depicting images of the prophet. I watched this and thought “Wow… Talk about unclear on the concept.”

The ban on images of the prophet exists as a means to prevent people from worshiping Mohamed instead of Allah. I know very little abut Lars Vilks, but I would be willing to bet that there’s no chance of this man founding a Mohamed-worshiping sect of Islam.

It’s all a perfect example of how faith without common sense is a seriously dangerous combination. If they’d just read their own history (and understand a bit of the theology they’re willing to kill for) we’d have a much easier time integrating all these religions into a workable society.