Australian Christians are offended, but not murderously so, about a statue of the Virgin Mary in a burqa and an image of Jesus Christ that morphs into Osama bin Laden.

The Anglican bishop of South Sydney, Robert Forsyth, said he was surprised by offended reactions to the artwork.

“Christians are not about to go and kill people because someone did some cartoons - it’s not the way we respond,” he said. …

The Archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal George Pell, said: “As a person of faith and religious background I think it’s important to reflect on the icons of our faiths. Unfortunately, some contemporary art is tedious and trivial. These couple of works demonstrate this.

“Regrettably, attempts to insult Jesus and Mary have become common in recent years, even predictable.Too often it seems that the only quality which makes something art is the adolescent desire to shock.

“If this is the best the Blake Prize can do, it has probably outlived its usefulness.”

But the leader of the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils, Ikebal Patel, thinks it’s excellent to see Mary in a burqa.

But Australian Federation of Islamic Councils president Ikebal Patel said the statue was “not at all offensive”, because both the Virgin Mary and Jesus were revered figures in Islam.

“So [Mary wearing a burqa is] no different to how our mothers and sisters are expected to be modest in their dressing,” he said.

He has a little more of a problem with the Jesus-Osama image, mostly because it’s taboo to have any drawing at all of an Islamic prophet.

But Mr Patel said he was affronted by the image of bin Laden’s face blending into that of Jesus, who is deemed a prophet in Islam.

“You have a revered prophet of Islam being equated to somebody like Osama bin Laden.

”Also in Islam, we don’t have any paintings or drawings depicting any of our prophets, so I find it quite offensive.“

UPDATE at 8/30/07 12:25:27 pm:

Reuters has more details on these works of fine art:

“Bearded Orientals: Making the Empire Cross” by Priscilla Bracks is a “double vision” print that depicts both Jesus and bin Laden.

Luke Sullivan’s “The Fourth Secret of Fatima” is a statue of Mary, her head and torso obscured by a blue burqa like the one Afghan women had to wear under the militant Taliban.

The artworks were among more than 500 entries in the Blake Prize for Religious Art, and have been included in an exhibition at the National Art School in Sydney.