I've been going through the Koran on this issue. Perhaps someone more knowledgable in this area could inform me but it's my understanding that the image ban pertains to Allah, and the only ban I can see on Muhammad is on people "worshipping" images.
Chapter 42, verse 11: "[Allah is] the originator of the heavens and the earth... [there is] nothing like a likeness of Him."
Chapter 21, verses 52-54: "[Abraham] said to his father and his people: 'What are these images to whose worship you cleave?' They said: 'We found our fathers worshipping them.' He said: 'Certainly you have been, you and your fathers, in manifest error.'"
In a wider context it includes all images, not just Muhammad. It's down to defining what exactly is "worshipping" when placed in an encyclopaedia.
There is also the issue of Persian art where Muhammad is depicted. Apparently the Shia, as opposed to Sunni, are less strict on their interpretation on where the image can be shown.
On 06/02/2008, Daniel R. Tobias dan@tobias.name wrote:
On Mon, 4 Feb 2008 12:40:09 +0100, "Mathias Schindler" mathias.schindler@gmail.com wrote:
That would be perfectly consistent with the usual effects of such a (self-)censorship tool. On the other hand, since naming a teddy bear Muhammad can bring you into trouble, looking at one with that name is already dangerously close. Thanks to the power of ASCII art, switching to links/lynx text based browsers won't work either.
Which brings up the question of why it seems to be fine to name people after Muhammad but not teddy bears. But trying to apply logic of any sort to religion is futile.
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Meg