Well, I guess even killing innocent Christians can get boring - so why not attack that evil Wikipedia?

Nearly 100,000 people worldwide have signed a Web-based petition asking Wikipedia to remove all depictions of the Prophet from its English-language entry.

“I request all brothers and sisters to sign this petitions so we can tell Wikipedia to respect the religion and remove the illustrations,” the creator of the petition at The Petition Site asks.

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All four images on the English-language Wikipedia page are rather lovely Persian and Ottoman miniatures from the 14th through 16th centuries. The two later ones depict Muhammad’s face as covered by a white veil, but the earlier pair show his full face.

You can find the petition itself here. There you can find some very stellar artwork like the following high quality picture. Nothing like the pictures they are trying to remove from Wikipedia.

The goal was to get 10k signatures, and by the time I visited they had 134,846, so a bit more than expected. (…and no, i didn’t sign).

Here is the text from the Petition itself:

In Islam picture of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and other Humans are not allowed. But Wikipedia editors are showing illustrations with face illustrated and face is veiled or white washed. But still they are offensive to Muslims. I request all brothers and sisters to sign this petitions so we can tell Wikipedia to respect the religion and remove the illustrations.

Note that is is not a petition to “ask” Wikipedia to remove the illustrations, but to “tell” them. All of the pictures (see below) are from 13th - 15th century art - nothing insulting or degrading. Note the comment in the above text about (and other Humans). While it seems crazy to even suggest that Islam would go from here to banning even artistic or even actual representations of Humans, but I am convinced that there is nothing to extreme from these zealots.

It just boggles the mind. I hope Wikipedia doesn’t cave in to the pressure, and so far it looks like they are not. Wikipedia posted a lengthy FAQ talking about how uses can turn off the images, and why the images on Wikipedia do not actually fall under the ban.

Lastly, in a lame effort to get someone to make a petition against me - here are local copies of all the pictures mentioned on the petition. Should Wikipedia give in, I will keep them here.

This is a picture believed to be the earliest surviving depiction of Muhammad, dated approximately 1315. How did this author escape beheading?

This is a picture from c. 1595 showing Muhammad’s face being veiled - but even the veil is not enough to avoid this insult to Islam.

This image shows Muhammad preaching in Mecca and is believe to have been created in 1489.

Also Reporing:
Stop the ACLU
The Free For All