So, there’s an art contest where students submit their work to Congress. Among the entrees, there are finalists and those finalists get their work displayed. This year, one of those finalists depicts the Statue of Liberty as a Muslim woman wearing a hijab.
I like it.
I like the actual art AND I like the message. I like the idea that people of all walks are able to look at Lady Liberty and see themselves reflected. Apparently, not all people are as impressed as I am:
A Democratic congressman is taking heat from Sarah Palin and other conservatives for a painting hanging in his California district office that depicts the Statue of Liberty as a Muslim woman.
We the People Rising, a conservative-leaning activist group, was among the first to object to the painting in Rep. Lou Correa’s district office in Santa Ana, Calif., arguing it violates the separation of church and state.
And more; from a video posted on We the People Rising’s website:
“You guys have a picture out in front of your office with the Statue of Liberty wearing a hijab, which I find reprehensible and disrespectful,” one of the members tells a staffer in the first video. “I would like to request that you remove it.”
Again, I don’t understand the reprehensible and disrespectful nature of the painting. It’s not mocking the Lady, it doesn’t depict her in a negative light. All it does is show what Liberty might look like if she were standing in another part of the world.
Kinda like depicting Jesus as a white guy standing in America rather than the brown guy he really was.
And speaking of religion, how is the painting supposed to violate the separation of church and state? And since when have conservatives minded such violations; though it is delicious to see such an argument used against a democrat.
As I’ve explained over and over – the concept of such separation between the church and the state does not mean that there can be no explicit religion in the state, only that the leader of state cannot be te same leader of the church. Or, that there be no official nation religion supported by the state.
If congress wants to open with a prayer to Allah, they may. The idea that a congressman can’t have a religious symbol in his office is insane; no one makes a fuss, or should make such fuss, when a congressman wears a cross chain, or has the Bible in his shelf or other such outward symbols.
As far as I’m concerned, the more Muslim girls that yearn from America’s Liberty the better this world will be!
Nice to read a column of yours I agree with completely! Interestingly, the statue of liberty is modeled somewhat after an Arab woman. The sculptor was going to do a statue for the Suez canal’s opening, but that fell through. He altered it a bit, but apparently kept much of the form from the original Egyptian model.