From Muhammad on museum walls:
While lethal riots persist in the Middle East and American cartoonists and editors wring their hands over what it means to publish pictures of Muhammad, the Western world’s curators of Islamic art whisper and wonder.As they understand it, the Koran does not forbid representations of Muhammad, though other revered texts have led millions of Muslims to scorn the idea. They know that many Islamic artists have taken on the subject. And they know that pictures of Muhammad — not caricatures, but respectful representations, executed by and for Muslims, sometimes with the prophet’s face shrouded by a veil, sometimes not — can be found in museums throughout Europe and North America.
(Hat tip to Virginia Postrel.)