February 7, 2006

  • Now here's a real problem for Muslims who take offense with images of Mohhamad


    We all know that on the Internet that all things graphically rendered are rendered in pixels.  These words, those pictures: all pixels.  Pixels assembling.  Pixels associating.  Pixels being pixels.


    Now imagine a web font whose letters are highly stylized, many of which characters pictographically represent various depictions of Mohhamad pretty damn well.  An 'O' face of the Prophet staring.  A 'G' profile of the Prophet smiling.  A 'Q' face of Prophet sticking his tongue out.  It's a clever font.  It's a novel font.  And someone ends up using this font on their blog to simply blog or even just to express love poetry, not with any intent to offend. 


    Muslims worldwide take offense. 


    Okay.  So now lets fuzzy-up that font a bit.  The stare, the smile, the tongue blur somewhat.  The font begins to appear less character-esque and more ornate.  Good enough?  Can I get back to writing poetry?


    Still many Muslims protest that it defiles their restriction that no 'images' of the Prophet ever be displayed. 


    Okay.  So in further deference to them,  lets fuzzy-up that font a bit more.   Is that a smile, is that a stare, is that a tongue, is that even Mohhamad anymore? 


    Fuzzy on, fuzzy some more. 


    At what precise point does that font cease to be a symbolic font that offends Muslims and merely becomes a medium for words once again? 


    One Muslim says "That's enough."  Another says: "No, I can still see the Prophet in the letters." 


    How far do we need to go?  Must we satisfy everyone?  What if we fuzz the font all the way back to the font you're looking at now and some radical-type Muslims still claim they see Mohhamad characterizations in it -  like some Christians see Mary's image on toast?  That would be ridiculous, of course.  But the question is at 'what point'  does the font cease to be Mohhamad-esque enough?  And whose  call is it? 


    If 'out of respect' we self-censor in order not to offend, deferring always to what some Muslims consider offensive, someday we may find ourselves font-less. 


     "Sorry, mister, you can't eat that toast.  That's a rendering of Jesus on it."

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