c. 2007 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) When the Prophet Muhammad saw the pillow his young wife, Aisha, had decorated for him with pictures of animals, he rebuked her: “Don’t you know that angels do not enter a house wherein there are pictures; and whoever makes a picture will be punished on the Day of Resurrection?”

However much the Prophet denounced art, many Muslim Americans are creating paintings that would give the Danish cartoons a run for their money.

Muslim-American artists are mixing traditional Islamic iconography with all sorts of secular symbols, from iPods to Dora the Explorer to risque pin-ups of women in full-length abaya robes. And within some Muslim circles, they have generated controversy as they grapple with their various identities as Muslims, artists and citizens.

Iranian-born painter Max Emadi exemplifies the blend of sacred and secular symbolism, a combination some viewers may find offensive.

Invoking The Emperor’s New Clothes, Emadi has depicted President Bush naked in the Oval Office as part of his “Terrorists” series. His portraits of Osama bin Laden (in the style of 19th century painter Jacques-Louis David’s Napoleon), 9/11 hijacker Mohamed Atta and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il (referencing Andy Warhol’s Mao) currently hang at the dA Center for the Arts in Pomona, Calif.

“It is funny to me how many people reacted to the `Islamic Erotica’ series as well as the `Terrorist’ series by encouraging me to fear for my life,” said Emadi, who lives in Los Angeles.

Emadi’s “God Is Great,” from 2006, shows a woman wearing a traditional black abaya standing in front of a mosque with a blue and gold minaret. But she assumes Marilyn Monroe’s famous “Seven Year Itch” pose as her billowing robes reveal her thighs and light blue heels. Other works in the “Islamic Erotica” series include a hijab-clad woman (inspired by American pin-ups) imitating Monroe’s famous Playboy pose and another sitting in a martini glass.

The pin-ups evoke Turkish-Cypriot artist Hussein Chalayan’s “Between” fashion collection, which was recently featured in a fashion and architecture exhibit called “Skin plus Bones” at the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art. Chalayan’s models are naked but for sandals and head scarf.

It does not always take sex, however, to create provocative Islamic art.

Pakistani-born painter Asma Ahmed Shikoh, for example, superimposes unlikely secular symbolism upon hijabs: an iPod, Dora the Explorer characters, yellow police tape and a cloudy homage to Rene Magritte, the surrealist painter.

“Popular icons have always been part of my work,” says Shikoh, whose portfolio also includes Arabic metro maps of New York City, where she now lives, and hijab-wearing superheroes.

But according to Kara Brunson, managing director of the Reston, Va.-based National Islamic Arts and Culture Foundation (NIACF), Americans are unaware of this sort of work. Brunson says Islamic art may be vaguely on the public’s radar, “but they may not have as strong a familiarity with some of the contemporary Muslim artists. Islamic art is often presented in a historical context.”

Baker Masad, director of the Arab Art Gallery in Amman, Jordan, thinks Islamic art ought to stay in that historical context rather than fool around with secular technological fads. Masad concedes that an artist’s environment should affect his or her work, but says the mixing of sacred and profane symbols indicates the artists “don’t understand Islam even though they are known to be Muslims.”

“I think this will be rejected by all Muslims,” he says of the hijab-as-iPod. “This is disrespectful not only for Muslim women, but for Islamic religion in general. … (The hijab) is serious. It is not for any type of entertainment.”

Virginia-based painter Shela Qamer calls the use of American icons in contemporary art “maybe more of a personal statement by some artists to convey their message.”

Qamer, who grew up in Pakistan, recently exhibited with Shikoh at an Islamic art expo sponsored by NIACF in Lansdowne, Va. While Shikoh works figuratively, Qamer combines abstract techniques with Islamic calligraphy, referencing her culture, beliefs and heritage.

“I find creating art work like meditation,” she said. “My focus is not just Islamic art but using art to communicate with my audience about different perspective of my cultural heritage.”

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However modern the symbolism, many view this sort of work as just another chapter in a longer historical narrative, not necessarily a new trend.

Ori Soltes, author of “Our Sacred Signs: How Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Art Draw From the Same Source,” points to ancient Persian and Ottoman illuminated manuscripts that contained Chinese cloud and dragon motifs. To Soltes, the contemporary blend of borrowing is just “another in a line of 20th-21st century examples of emulating U.S. culture.”

Marcella Sirhandi, professor South Asian art history at Oklahoma State University, agrees.

“Of course they have always borrowed from host cultures,” she said, “but the types of borrowing and the reasons for doing so, change.”

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Even as some historians dismiss contemporary Islamic art as merely mixing cultural symbols, Shikoh, who superimposed a hijab on an iPod, said post-9/11 life has significantly altered Muslim-American artists’ identities _ both as Muslims and Americans.

“We have been pushed to explore and realize that a few people cannot hijack our religion and use it to do crazy murderous acts,” she said. “I, along with many other educated Muslims, (am) taking ownership and understanding true Islam.

“Many of us didn’t even think of being `Muslim’ before in our works. Now, whether or not we reflect it in the work, we are always interpreted as such.”

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Editors: substitute symbol for `plus’ in `Skin plus Bones’ in 8th graf

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Photos of artwork by Max Emadi and Asma Shikoh are available via https://religionnews.com