Liberals and Elephant Dung

Newsweek has been blamed for riots and deaths in the Middle East, sparked by Michael Isikoff and John Barry's relatively small item about American guards at Guantanamo Bay desecrating the Koran, including flushing it down a toilet.

Although we all know that particular story has been discredited, imagine for a moment that Isikoff actually had reported the truth. Imagine that it happened.

What would you think of the violence then?

Would you think it was understandable for people to riot and kill because of that report?

I wouldn't. I would think it was horribly insensitive to desecrate Islam's holy book; but I would not think such an action would give the green light to kill.

I guess there are cultural differences at work, as well as issues of context.

If an image of a Koran in a toilet was hanging on a gallery wall in New York would that incite violence or would it be art?

We know Piss Christ, Andres Serrano's photograph of a crucifix submerged in his own urine, was defended by liberals. That was deemed artistic expression, not desecration. Although it caused some uproar and offended some Christians in the U.S. in the late 1980s, there were no riots or deaths. The fact that the National Endowment for the Arts was supporting Serrano's "art," that tax dollars had gone to the creator of Piss Christ, irritated many; but no one died over it.



In 1999, "artist" Chris Ofili's The Holy Virgin Mary, with its elephant dung and pornographic images in a picture of the Virgin Mary, was controversial and sparked protests. Again, no deaths or riots resulted because of this tasteless "work of art." Again, the secularist liberal elite championed it as a totally appropriate expression by an artist, rather than an affront to Christians.



So, the question becomes: If an artist, subsidized by the National Endowment for the Arts, puts a Koran in a toilet, should that be defended as legitimate artistic expression?

Within the sophisticated circles of the liberal elite high priests of culture, the answer is obvious.

If an American guard throws a Koran in a toilet, that's akin to torture.

If an artist does the same, that's a masterpiece.