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	Misplaced Pages is not bound by any religious prohibitions. Misplaced Pages is an encyclopedia that strives to represent all topics from a ], and therefore '''] for the benefit of any particular group.''' So long as they are relevant to the article and do not violate any of Misplaced Pages's existing ], nor the law of the ] of ], where most of Misplaced Pages's ] are hosted, no content or images will be removed from Misplaced Pages because people find them objectionable or offensive. (See also: ].)		Misplaced Pages is not bound by any religious prohibitions. Misplaced Pages is an encyclopedia that strives to represent all topics from a ], and therefore '''] for the benefit of any particular group.''' So long as they are relevant to the article and do not violate any of Misplaced Pages's existing ], nor the law of the ] of ], where most of Misplaced Pages's ] are hosted, no content or images will be removed from Misplaced Pages because people find them objectionable or offensive. (See also: ].)

	Misplaced Pages does not single out Islam in this. There is content that is equally offensive to other religionists, such as the 1868 photograph shown at ] (offensive to adherents of the ]), or the account of Scientology's "secret doctrine" at ] (offensive to adherents of ]), or the account at ] (offensive to adherents of ]). Submitting to all these various sensitivities would make writing a neutral encyclopedia impossible.		Misplaced Pages does not single out Islam in this. There is content that is equally offensive to other religionists, such as the 1868 photograph shown at ] (offensive to adherents of the ]), or the account of Scientology's "secret doctrine" at ] (offensive to adherents of ]), or the account at ] (offensive to adherents of ]). There is also content offensive to prudes who are offended by genitalia images. Submitting to all these various sensitivities would make writing a neutral encyclopedia impossible.

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Revision as of 21:52, 31 December 2010

Below are answers to frequently asked questions about the corresponding page Muhammad. They address concerns, questions, and misconceptions which have repeatedly arisen on the talk page. Please update this material when needed.

Many of these questions arise frequently on the talk page concerning Muhammad.

To view an explanation to the answer, click the link to the right of the question.

Q1: Shouldn't the images be removed because they might offend Muslims? A1: Further information: ]

There is a prohibition of depicting Muhammad in certain Muslim communities (The prohibition is not universal among Muslim communities. For a discussion, see Depictions of Muhammad and Aniconism in Islam.)

Misplaced Pages is not bound by any religious prohibitions. Misplaced Pages is an encyclopedia that strives to represent all topics from a neutral point of view, and therefore Misplaced Pages is not censored for the benefit of any particular group. So long as they are relevant to the article and do not violate any of Misplaced Pages's existing policies, nor the law of the U.S. state of Florida, where most of Misplaced Pages's servers are hosted, no content or images will be removed from Misplaced Pages because people find them objectionable or offensive. (See also: Misplaced Pages:Content disclaimer.)

Misplaced Pages does not single out Islam in this. There is content that is equally offensive to other religionists, such as the 1868 photograph shown at Bahá'u'lláh (offensive to adherents of the Bahá'í Faith), or the account of Scientology's "secret doctrine" at Xenu (offensive to adherents of Scientology), or the account at Timeline of human evolution (offensive to adherents of Young Earth creationism). There is also content offensive to prudes who are offended by genitalia images. Submitting to all these various sensitivities would make writing a neutral encyclopedia impossible. Q2: Aren't the images false? A2:

It is not claimed that they are accurate depictions of Muhammad: the artists who painted these images lived hundreds of years after Muhammad and could not have seen him themselves. This fact is made absolutely clear in the image captions. The images are duly presented as notable 14th to 17th century Muslim artwork depicting Muhammad, not as contemporary portraits. See depictions of Muhammad for a more detailed discussion of Muslim artwork depicting Muhammad.

Similar artistic interpretations are used in articles for Homer, Charlemagne, Paul of Tarsus, and many other historical figures. When no accurate images (i.e. painted after life, or photographs) exist, it is a longstanding tradition on Misplaced Pages to incorporate images that are historically significant artwork and/or typical examples of popular depictions. Using images that readers understand to be artistic representations, as long as those images illustrate the topic effectively, is considered to be more instructive than using no image at all. Random recent depictions may be removed as undue in terms of notability, while historical artwork (in this case, of the Late Medieval or Ottoman period) adds significantly to the presentation of how Muhammad was being topicalized throughout history.

It is important to understand that these depictions do not mean to factually represent the face of Muhammad; rather, they are merely artists' conceptions. Such portrayals generally convey a certain aspect of a particular incident, most commonly the event itself, or maybe the act, akin to the Western genre of history painting. The depictions are, thus, not meant to be accurate in the sense of a modern photograph, and are presented here for what they are: yet another form in which Muhammad was depicted.

None of these pictures hold a central position in the article, as evident by their placement, nor are they an attempt to insult the subject. Several factions of Christianity oppose the use of hagiographic imagery (even to the point of fighting over it), but the images are still on Misplaced Pages, exactly for what they are — i.e. artistic renditions of said people. Q3: How can I hide the images using my personal Misplaced Pages settings? A3:

If you do not wish to view Muhammad images, you have a number of options to hide these images:

by filtering content locally, either by setting up a proxy (such as Privoxy), or by configuring your web browser.
by creating an account and reading Misplaced Pages while logged in. User accounts offer a number of preference settings.

See Help:Options_to_not_see_an_image for additional information.

Below, you can find a guide to hide images of Muhammad if you have an account.

If you have an account or want to create one, you can change your personal settings so that you don't have to see Muhammad images, without affecting other users. This is done by modifying your CSS (Cascading Style Sheet) page, which is individual to each user. To do this:

Sign in or create an account
Click on this link to modify your personal stylesheet
- If no page is there already, just go ahead and create a page
If you want to disable all images included in this specific article, add the following line to your css page:

body.page-Muhammad img {display: none;}

This will permanently hide all images on the "Muhammad" article for you as long as you are logged in.

You also have the possibility to only block a list of specified images. See here for an example. Q4: Why is Muhammad's name not followed by (pbuh) or (saw) in the article? A4: Further information: ] It is recommended to remove all honorifics, such as The Prophet, (The) Holy Prophet, (pbuh), or (saw), that precede or follow Muhammad's name. This is because many editors consider such honorifics as promoting an Islamic point of view instead of a neutral point of view which Misplaced Pages is required to maintain. Misplaced Pages:Naming conventions (people) also recommends against the use of titles or honorifics, such as Prophet, unless it is the simplest and most neutral way to deal with disambiguation. When disambiguation is necessary, the Islamic prophet Muhammad is the recommended form. Q5: Why does it look like the article is biased towards secular or "Western" references? A5: Further information: ]

Accusations of bias towards Western references are often made when an objection is raised against the display of pictures of Muhammad or lack of honorifics when mentioning Muhammad. All articles on Misplaced Pages are required to present a neutral point of view. This neutrality is sometimes mistaken for hostility. Note that exactly the same guidelines apply to articles about Christianity or any other religion.

In addition, this article is hosted on the English-language Misplaced Pages. While references in languages other than English are not automatically inappropriate, English-language references are clearly preferred, because they are of the most use to the typical reader. This therefore predisposes the material used in this article to some degree (see WP:NONENG).

Users wishing to participate in an online encyclopedia with a Muslim point of view might want to take a look at other projects such as MuslimWiki, whose article on Muhammad is written according to certain Islamic rules. Q6: Why can't I edit this article as an anonymous user? A6:

Persistent vandalism of the page has forced us to disable editing by anonymous editors and new accounts. Accounts older than four days can still edit normally, unless the article is protected more heavily, see below. This is likely to remain the case for the foreseeable future.

In any case, the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License grants everybody the right to republish this article elsewhere, and even to modify it themselves, as long as the original authors are also credited. Q7: Can censorship be employed on Misplaced Pages? A7:

No. The official policy is that Misplaced Pages is not censored.

Here are some examples of non-censorship:

Click on show to view the contents of this section

Content that can be considered blasphemous

Further information: Freedom of speech versus blasphemy

Images that can be considered racist

Images that can be considered gruesome

Images that can be considered pornographic

Q8: Because Muhammad married an underage girl, should the article say he was a pedophile? A8: This question has been actively discussed in Talk:Muhammad, and those discussions are archived. According to most traditional sources, Muhammad consummated his marriage to his third wife Aisha when she was nine years old. This was not considered unusual in Muhammad's culture and time period, therefore there is no reason for the article to refer to Muhammad in the context of pedophilia. Even today, in parts of the world, the legal age of consent is nine years old. In any case, any modern controversy about Aisha's age is not best dealt with in a biography about Muhammad. See the articles on Aisha and Criticism of Muhammad#Aisha for further information.

References

C. (Colin) Turner, Islam: The Basics, Routledge Press, p.34-35

Category:

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