Courage, Complaint, and Wikipedia's Medieval Images

Who ever thought that Wikipedia would in some small way come to represent a bulwark of preserving history? Wiki's a convenient source for quick access to information, though not all the info is correct all the time.

Now it's become embroiled in the latest flap over offending a certain easily-offended group. Here is the blurb:

Wikipedia, the free online encyclopaedia, is refusing to remove medieval artistic depictions of the Prophet Muhammad, despite being flooded with complaints from Muslims demanding the images be deleted.

More than 180,000 worldwide have joined an online protest claiming the images, shown on European-language pages and taken from Persian and Ottoman miniatures dating from the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, are offensive to Islam, which prohibits any representation of Muhammad. But the defiant editors of the encyclopaedia insist they will not bow to pressure and say anyone objecting to the controversial images can simply adjust their computers so they do not have to look at them.

Well, good on Wikipedia!

Yes, the medieval images are examples of history and should be preserved as such. Anyway, for an impartial encyclopedia to edit itself based on somebody else's offense is basically censorship of information, and that's the first step toward intellectual destruction. Free exchange of ideas and information is the foundation of meaningful research. Also, I am totally unsympathetic to the ideologically-driven destruction of cultural and historical objects during the Cultural Revolution in China; I am equally unsympathetic to the new Islamist equivalent.

Besides, here is an interesting thought. The supposedly offensive images come from Persian and Ottoman sources. You know, the current intolerant attitude toward images of Muhammad was not the only approach through the long history of Muslim culture, and it's useful to recall that.