15th century illustration in a copy of a manuscript by reports that Wikipedia the multilingual, web-based free encyclopaedia has become subject of an online petition of Muslims requesting the removal of illustrations of Muhammad. The petition has collected nearly 120,000 signatures since 4th Dec 2007 through The Petition Site, although many people remain anonymous. Wikipedia responds

Wikipedia recognizes that there are cultural traditions among some Muslim groups that prohibit depictions of Muhammad and other prophets and that some Muslims are offended when those traditions are violated. However, the prohibitions are not universal among Muslim communities, particularly with the Shi’a who, while prohibiting the images, are less strict about it. Since Wikipedia is an encyclopaedia with the goal of representing all topics from a neutral point of view, Wikipedia is not censored for the benefit of any particular group. So long as they are relevant to the article and do not violate any of Wikipedia’s existing policies, nor the law of the U.S. state of Florida, where Wikipedia’s servers are hosted, no content or images will be removed from Wikipedia because people find them objectionable or offensive.

I wonder how much pressure Wikipedia can stand; a petition is just one method of protest. Still it’s all rather odd that the images used such as the one-pictured are centuries old and produced by Muslims.

Look, I find women wearing the burkha distasteful, but I’m not about to stop women wearing it, by the way I find any religious dress distasteful like the Plymouth Brethren’s insistence that women wear head coverings. Why is it always women being victimised?