Monday, February 13, 2006

Decapitation As Art?

From a Front Page Magazine article by Robert Spencer:

"A disgraceful art exhibit in Milan has illustrated once again the deep affinity between the Left and the forces of the global jihad. In these days of Muslims the world over calling for the deaths of those who have 'insulted Islam,' anyone who wants to see Oriana Fallaci beheaded need look no further than the Galleria Luciano Inga-Pin in Milan, which is exhibiting Giuseppe Veneziano’s American Beauty from January 19 through March 18. This is a series of paintings designed to highlight the 'weakness and perversity of the "American way of life."' It accordingly features straightforward, if somewhat lurid, portraits of Michael Jackson and Ronald McDonald, along with the distinctly non-American Harry Potter. Then comes a bizarre depiction of a nude man having sexual intercourse with the Pink Panther, five artistic renditions of the Abu Ghraib prison photos (each with 'American Beauty' scrawled across the top), and — Oriana Fallaci’s decapitated head....

"[The] painting is a fitting emblem for the new Europe, the Europe in which the Swedish government closed down a political party’s website for displaying the cartoons of Muhammad, the Norwegian editor who ran the cartoons abjectly apologized, and European companies doing business in the Middle East can’t dissociate themselves quickly enough from Denmark and the cartoons of shame. This is the New Europe, the New Dhimmi Europe, the Europe that is eager to 'give the Muslim world the message: We are aware of the consequences of exercising the right of free expression.'

"Oh, Europe is already well aware of those consequences. The consequences are crystal clear in Giuseppe Veneziano’s painting of Oriana Fallaci’s severed head. Not enough of those in Europe who still have their heads seem willing to stand up to Islamic violence and intimidation long enough to allow the heroic lady to keep hers. All around the Continent the parliamentary heads of government are losing their heads trying to avoid offending Islam; all too soon they will realize that Fallaci’s head alone was not enough to appease their sworn enemies. Not nearly enough."

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