Statues and pictures are allowed in Shafafi Islam. Mainstream muslims have been told that if there is a painting, photograph, or statue, then people will start worshipping it instead of God. This makes no sense on multiple levels.

The Kaaba in Mecca is said to be a directional “marker” that Muslims are supposed to pray in the direction of. Mainstream muslims say that they aren’t worshipping the Kaaba yet they bow in front of it, touch it, kiss it, revere it, and cannot imagine a replacement of it (proving that it is very special, and not just a cube-shaped building). Yet, after all this, they still claim that they do not worship it and instead use it only as the direction to pray towards since they cannot see God. They reserve this logic only for their own uses. They refuse to understand Hinduism, for example, where statues and paintings are used as symbols representing the invisible gods — effectively, the statues and paintings are also directional markers to pray towards. There are millions of these god statues and pictures, yet mainstream muslims still pretend that hindus are worshipping the stone and paint and not an unseen god like they are. The same biased logic is used to explain why Muhammad demolished statues of pre-Islamic gods in the Kaaba (“They were powerless, and thus, not worthy of worship“), yet they continue to worship the Kaaba, a powerless cube-shaped building.

Secondly, the fear that a picture or statue will convince a muslim to worship it instead of God shows how weak the faith of that muslim is. A true muslim is not afraid of looking at pictures, statues, and reading Harry Potter. A true muslim does not worry about believing and worshipping pictures, statues, or Lord Voldemort.

According to Shafafi Islam, there is no sin in creating or looking at photographs, paintings (even religious ones depicting God or Muhammad), statues, fiction literature (such as Harry Potter), or cube shaped buildings – no matter how many people worship in their direction.