As the massacre at Charlie Hebdo
reminds us, art and satire have long been targets of violent
suppression. Here are nine famous books, films and plays that sparked a
virulent backlash.
The Wednesday attack against cartoonists of the satirical French paper Charlie Hedbo is the latest bloody reminder of the consequences that can come from practicing our most sacred and powerful form of expression. Artistic types have been testing the lines of free expression since time immemorial, and this exercise has long tested nerves and inspired brutal backlashes or suppression.
Nazis banished all “degenerate” art, comic books sparked protests throughout the post-WWII years, and censorship of provocative films continues. Even now, we struggle with how conflicts involving religion and politics come to a head in art, and many societies dole out punishment to those who would dare test the boundaries. Sometimes, the repercussions reach beyond the creators and affect hundreds or thousands. Here are a few examples of the violence that controversial art has inspired.
No film trailer has had such catastrophic international repercussions as “The Innocence of Muslims,” an amateur and offensive depiction of the prophet Muhammed as a murderer. When a clip of it was aired on Egyptian television in 2012, protests erupted across the country.
The unrest soon made its fiery way across the world’s Muslim-majority nations, from Iran to Nigeria to Malaysia. Tens of thousands of protesters rushed to city squares and U.S. embassies, and hundreds were killed. In Yemen, 60 vehicles at the American compound were burned.
In Pakistan, the government announced a national holiday specifically to rail against the film. And in what at first appeared to be related incident, but would later prove to have been pre-planned, the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya, was stormed and four Americans were killed, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens.
In 2004, Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh directed a short film called “Submission” that depicted an abused and almost naked women painted with Quranic verses. He intended it to be a call for women’s rights in Muslim communities. By the end of the year, Van Gogh, the great-great-nephew of the famous painter, had been shot and stabbed to death by a Dutch Moroccan assailant while on his way to his office in Amsterdam. After the attack, the film’s writer, a former Muslim, was forced into hiding. In response to the backlash, mosques in Holland were torched, and in return, so were churches. A year later, after the film was shunned by European television channels and theaters, the Italian state broadcasters made the bold decision to air it, despite threats.
Read more: A Modern History of Free-Speech Martyrs - The Daily Beast
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