“We’re going to burn you naked or put a bullet in your mouth.”
Islamists to Dutch Artist Sooreh Hera
After her photos of gay men with Mohammad masks were displayed
Times Online
Dutch artist Sooreh Hera is still in hiding and her photos are still not on display.
Sooreh Hera
Strike Three… For the third time in a row, a controversial art exhibit depicting gays wearing masks of the Prophet Mohammad was yanked from another Dutch gallery.
Dutch News and ROP reported:
THE HAGUE, 26/04/08 – The controversial Mohammed-exhibition of work by Iranian artist Sooreh Hera remains hidden from the public. For the third time in succession, an exhibitor willing to show her work has reversed this decision.
Hera took photos of homosexuals wearing masks of the prophet Mohammed and his son-in-law Ali. The work was first going to be exhibited by the Gemeentemuseum in The Hague, but the museum changed its mind because it “did not wish to become part of a political debate,” as Director Wim van Krimpen put it.
MuseumgoudA then took on the role of advocate of artistic freedom. In December 2007, museum director Ranti Tjan offered to exhibit the work of Hera, who by then had begun to receive serious threats. But Tjan then needed protection himself and called the whole thing off.
Nor will the photos be shown at Art Amsterdam, an exhibition in the RAI at the beginning of May. Galerie A in Amsterdam offered two weeks ago to show the photos at Art Amsterdam, but now suddenly claims there is “not enough space”. Only Hera’s “less controversial” photos will therefore be on display in the RAI.
This photo from the exhibit did not go over well with the radical Islamists:
Sooreh Hera, the artist, an Iranian exile who goes by the pseudonym of Sooreh Hera, said she had been threatened with “execution.” She had wanted to expose a “hypocritical” attitude towards homosexuality in countries such as Iran. Now she is in hiding.
Previously:
Dutch Artist Goes Underground After Putting Mohammad Masks On Gay Men
Dutch Museum Caves to Islamic Extremists- Removes Gay Mohammed Exhibit
Reuters Shows Gay Mohammad Photo