Lori Haigh was an art gallery owner who received death threats for putting up just one painting called 'The Abuse' by the artist Guy Colwell which depicted the Abu Ghraib prison tortures of detainees......
She was spat in the face, her art gallery was vandalized a few times, it was burglarized and apart from receiving numerous death threats, she was violently attacked by an assailant who came to visit her breaking her nose and then she got a phone call (will link) which actually said that she got off easy...
(Scroll down a little)
http://www.art-for-a-change.com/News...s/june2004.htm
After she got beaten up, many journalists and reporters actually defended the actions of the attackers citing reason that she deserved this because she was responsible for putting up such a controversial topic...
At best it appears Haigh was naξve - judging by her own statements - with regard to the impact of such an potentially explosive exhibition. In the worst light, savvy art dealers know political art will stimulate a strong public reaction,
Right wingers' ganged up on the gallery and forced the piece to be removed. Even the police offered little support and advised Haigh to shut down her gallery instead of offering her protection.
http://www.recirca.com/artnews/293.shtml
This is the link to the message that she received from someone after the attack perpetrated on her...
http://www.capogallerysf.com/
This newspaper site actually marginalizes her and labels her as a hoax...
http://www.chronwatch.com/content/co...y.asp?aid=7859
Now, we see even the police urging and forcing Haigh to close down her gallery citing she is unpatriotic and what not...
Of course the anger and the resulting violence against the gallery owner would never be shown on TV, even in the same town, but what we would see is some angry protestors across the globe denouncing the cartoons depicting the Holy Prophet :saw:
...
We would hear tiny excuses of how inflaming and hateful this art was and how it infuriated the patriots of America and how their actions can be excused on the basis that it inflamed their emotions and how they were carried away and how it was all very excusable...
On the other hand we would also see bombastic and flamboyant outcries of indignation directed at the Muslims of how they are a violent, mass murdering, terrorist people who would want to kill, maim and destroy because they don't have a sense of humour...
While keeping the two things in mind, the cartoons and this incident, one must realize where both stand...
On the one hand, you have an outright fabricated mockery and ridicule of the most beloved entity of an entire race of people while on the other hand you have an artist who opinionated in his drawings, factual events which were much, much worse than depicted in his painting...
Both solicited violent tendencies in people, but which one was actually blown out of proportion deliberately?
Theo Van Gogh, before he was killed, received death threats as much as Lori Haigh and Guy Colwell...But since in the case of Van Gogh the threats came from Muslims, they were headline news...But, both Haigh and Colwell have moved out of the San Francisco area for fear of further attacks following multiple death threats of which never heard on the news...Suprise surprise...And San Francisco, BTW, is considered the liberal capital of USA...
This is just one incident that somehow I managed to come upon incidently, however there may be numerous unaccounted for which never make the news because of tarnishing the US's image...We should all be happy happy joy joy in the vision given by Hollywood, CNN and Fox of the US...
I remember many Americanists on this board cited freedom of expression and liberty to do stuff in the US and reaction of a few people as crazy...Keeping in mind who was mocked in the cartoons...
Yet, in the links I provided, you'd find articles that justify the vandalism and attack on Haigh as stemming from over emotional sentiments...
Although many Muslims on this board were extremely critical of the Muslims who became extremely agitated over the cartoon issue, but except for myself and a few others, I didn't see a single 'moderately enlightened' Muslim justify the actions of Muslims as stemming from overt emotions...
All I saw were the words, 'shameful', 'Disgusting behaviour', e.t.c....Where was the enlightenment then? I didn't see any enlightened justification for the actions of Muslims from Muslims...Or do we seek the media's approval before condemning or supporting certain actions...What happened to holding your own opinions and sticking to them?
Reminds me of an old saying by Maulana Maududi:
The west has shown the Muslims a mirror and told them how ugly you are...And the Muslims believed it...
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