Source: huffingtonpost.com

Muslims the world over have strongly condemned Wednesday’s terrorist attack against the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, in which 12 people were killed by masked gunmen. The paper is believed to have been targeted because of its history of publishing provocative cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad. But what do the teachings of Islam actually say about creating images of the prophet?

There’s no part in the Quran where Muhammad says that images of him are forbidden. But the issue is mentioned in the hadith, a secondary text that many Muslims consult for instruction on how to live a good life.

“It comes from the notion that God is transcendent and that nothing should be put in God’s place.Anything like that is idolatry. You don’t want to have a statue or a picture of God, because people may wind up praying to it.” Esposito told The Huffington Post.

For similar reasons, some Muslims object to depictions of Jesus or Moses, who are also considered prophets in Islam. In several Muslim countries, the films “Noah” and “Exodus” were banned this year because of their portrayal of these important figures, CNN reports.

NOT JUST MUHAMMAD

The issue isn’t unique to Islam — it has also come up in the other Abrahamic traditions. In Judaism, the Bible depicts God as becoming deeply troubled after the ancient Israelites created and worshipped a golden calf. The Byzantine Empire saw the rise of the Iconoclasm movement, a name that literally means “image breaking.”

An opposition to icons flared up again during the Protestant Reformation. The prominent Protestant theologian John Calvin wrote fiery sermons decrying man’s audacity in attempting to give God a human form.

“God’s glory is corrupted by an impious falsehood whenever any form is attached to him,” Calvin wrote in his landmark 16th-century work Institutes of the Christian Religion.

At around the same time, during the reign of King Edward VI in England, some believers went as far as to whitewash murals and destroy stained-glass windows that depicted Christ.

‘IT WAS QUITE DEVOTIONAL’

In Islam, particularly in the Sunni tradition that developed in… read more at huffingtonpost.com