It is not without cause that the arts have been called “symbolic battlefield”

(shohat and Stam 1994; 183). Nor is it self-evident that the many different

artfornis , and opinions about the artists should or shouldn’t do, can co-exist har-

moniously. There are many examples of struggle, with difTerent consequences, that

can be cited. I give some of these below.

Translators, distributors and publishers of Sulman Rushdi’s The satanic Verses

all over the world have been threatened and in some cases killed. The singer

Lounes Mataub, famous throughout the Arab world, was murdered in June 1998.

He came from the Kabylia region of Algeria, whose people feel oppressed by the

central government. Не was well known for his struggle in defense of the Berber

language, which is all but banned in Kabylia and against Muslim fundamentalism.

These are just a few examples that show how cruel the “symbolic battlegrounds’

can be.

In the West we are so obsessed with freedom of speech that are not prepared to

understand how this freedom may appear о the people to lead to fundamental

disrespect for what is most sacred to them. As long as this principle of &eedom

without any restraints remains unchallenged, a dialogue on how to bridge the gap

between cultures will be difficult. Let us look at the example of the Brooklyn

Museum of Art in New York, which is the autumn of 1999 put on the exhibition

Featuring a portrait of the Virgin Mary in which her breasts are decorated with

pieces of what has delicately been described as elephant dung. This is a work by

The British Nigerian artist Chris Ofuli, who “discovered” the use of elephant dung

during a British Council-funded trip to Zimbabwe (see stallabrass 1999:107-17).

Was his use of it in this painting disrespectful to Catholics and their beliefs? The

New York ~ mayor Rudolfo Giuliani thought so and threatened to withdraw the

city’s subsidy from the museum. Or was contempt for this work of art a bit for

popular support in his contest with Hillary Clinton for a seat in the American

senate? А debate on the relationship between artistic freedom, on the one hand,

and respect for the fhndamental values of specific sections of society, on the

other, wo’ald have made more than sense than playing the censorship card. In a

civilized society, is there anything wrong with respecting other people’s deeply

felt beliefs or customs , even if it means artists restraining themselves somewhat?