Fears of Islamic extremists spur gallery to shelve sculpture of Koran embedded in glass

David Smith:

One of Britain's leading conceptual artists has accused the Tate gallery of 'cowardice' after it banned one of his major works for fear of offending some Muslims after the London terrorist bombings.

John Latham's God Is Great consists of a large sheet of thick glass with copies of Islam, Christianity and Judaism's most sacred texts - the Koran, Bible and Talmud - apparently embedded within its surface.

The work was due to go on display last week in an exhibition dedicated to Latham at London's Tate Britain, but gallery officials took the unprecedented decision to veto it because of political and religious sensitivities.

Latham, a star of the Sixties avant garde and maverick role model to a generation of Young British Artists, is so dismayed by the ban that he last night called on Tate Britain to relinquish God Is Great, which he made more than 10 years ago, from its permanent collection and return it to him. The civil rights organisation Liberty also condemned the gallery's decision.

The row comes in the wake of religious controversies in the past year involving Jerry Springer - The Opera, which prompted thousands of complaints from radical Christians, and Behzti, a play about rape and murder in a Sikh temple, which was cancelled by the Birmingham Repertory Theatre after violent protests by members of the Sikh community.

Tate Britain says that it had to take the 'difficult decision' to avoid its motives being misunderstood given the attacks, which killed 52 people in July, and the present political climate. However, it admitted it had not consulted the Metropolitan Police or the Muslim Council of Britain.

Last night Latham, 84, who insists that the piece is not anti-Islamic, told The Observer: 'Tate Britain have shown cowardice over this. I think it's a daft thing to do because if they want to help the militants, this is the way to do it.

'It's not even a gesture as strong as censorship: it's just a loss of nerve on the part of the administration.'

And yet Muslims are apparently allowed to be offensive to Christians as the poster below shows:



The poster advertises a play by Chokri Ben Chikha, a young Tunisian Muslim author, actor and singer. Just another example of the double standards that are at work in Multicultural Europe.

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