ABOVE: detail from John Latham’s God is Great; the Tate Britain has removed it from view for fear of offending…you know—uh, those people.

Tate Britain has embarrassed itself by yanking a religiously-inspired artwork from display in response, it says, to the London bombings of July 7. John Latham’s God is Great features the three holy books of the three Abrahamic religions (Jewish, Christian, Muslim) embedded in a sheet of glass, and now the Tate cowardly says it is a bad idea to display it. Their reasoning is specious on every possible level: Why, for instance, did it take them more than two months to reach their moronic decision, if this is supposed to be a response to July 7? Why do they believe that removing the work from view is meant to assuage irritated muslims—who have apparently been unfazed by the work for the past decade it has been on view? Are muslims perceived at the Tate as being easier to offend than jews or christians? And did they not, you know, consult any muslims about the issue before taking censorious umbrage on their behalf?

No, they didn’t, reports the BBC, which quotes a statement made by the Muslim Council of Britain: “We have not received any complaints about this piece of artwork. We would have preferred to have been consulted by Tate Britain before the decision was taken to remove John Latham’s piece. Sometimes presumptions are incorrectly made about what is unacceptable to Muslims and this can be counter-productive.” Need we say more? Grow a spine, Tatesters.

LINK: BBC > Tate ‘misunderstood’ banned work