My reviews of Islamic art have addressed contemporary Islamic art, the implications of Orientalism, and the question of whether Islam is aniconistic (Wiki definition). My first piece in Arab American News focused on the reasons why Israeli art gets so much more attention than Palestinian art does. I received an email in response to the article from Allyson Rowen Taylor, who elsewhere identifies herself as the associate director of the American Jewish Congress in Los Angeles, ridiculing me for my "bizarre" attempts "to boost the morale of a people who prefer life in the 8th century to the 21st." Taylor further pontificated: "While we can give kudos to the Muslims for the arts, this is moot in
comparison to discovery and technology that improves the quality of human lives.
This is something that Muslims, until today, do not take into consideraton [sic] while
they teach hate, and strap bombs on their children. Who cares how many
pages are on google about Islamic art? David Duke and the KKK have more pages
than Ghandi." This sort of response underscored for me the importance of contributing to the public understanding of Islamic art, which was clearly an area that was not getting sufficient column inches and ink. Part of my research included interviews with Islamic religious leaders and art experts, which appear to the right:
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