The Bored Ape Yacht Club. When the NFT turns into Nazi propaganda and insults Muslims

NFT is one of the hottest trends in the blockchain environment. In the article about the STEPN project, we have already considered the possibility of buying and participating Muslims in projects where such tokens are distributed and used. From the point of view of compliance with Sharia law, the NFT token is considered as ownership of a certain unique object and is not haram. Islam recognizes the ownership of intangible objects, including art objects. The only exceptions are those objects that cannot have a private owner (objects of cultural heritage) or art objects that contain images of something prohibited by Sharia or offend someone's feelings.

NFT is an extremely profitable sphere,therefore, in the pursuit for big money, the creators of tokens are often forget about any decency and do not pay attention to the fact that their creations are capable to shock people. This happened with the project The Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC). BAYC is a series of 10,000 images with anthropomorphic monkeys. Seemingly harmless images exploit racial, religious and cultural cliches. The Bored Ape Yacht Club is a terrible example for other artists. There is a real danger in dehumanizing people and equating them with monkeys, which, as many studies have shown, justifies violence and racism.

A prominent YouTuber has branded Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) “the biggest troll in internet history” and called for “every celebrity actor, athlete, and influencer” to burn their ‘Nazi’ Apes. In a video published on Monday, investigator Philip Rusnack — also known as Philion — criticized BAYC for what he claims is the collection’s overt use of racist imagery and obvious far-right symbolism.

Claims of BAYC’s ties to racism aren’t new. Back in January of this year, conceptual artist and programmer, Ryder Ripps compiled an extensive list of ‘issues’ with BAYC and its designs. These included similarities between the project’s logo and a Nazi emblem, various theories around the founders’ names, and even the fact that the project officially launched on April 30 — the date of Hitler’s death.

Ripps’ claims of the Bored Apes’ connections to Nazism begin with the collective’s logo. The monkey’s skull, bordered on all sides by text, is “very similar” to the Totenkopf symbol utilized by Nazis. Both images depict skulls with 18 teeth.

Yuga Labs, the company that owns Bored Ape Yacht Club, outright denies connections to any extremist imagery. Moreover, co-CEO Nicole Muniz says that very idea runs opposite to the sense of community the BAYC wants to foster. She characterizes Ripps’ barrage of BAYC-targeting tweets as very aggressive. “It is deeply painful,” she says. “It’s disturbing.”

Talking about nazi and racial supremacy, we always remember the words of The Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ): "Indeed, Allah Almighty has delivered you from the feeling of pride caused by the arrogance of the times of jahiliya and from praising your ancestors. And now people can belong to two types: Believers who know the laws of Allah; and sinners who do unrighteous deeds. We are all children of Adam, and Adam was created by Allah Almighty from clay. And people should abandon pride and arrogance of their nations, because this pride is nothing but a smoldering coal from the burning coals of hell. And if they do not leave it, then Allah Almighty will consider them inferior creatures, such as are lower even than the last worm crawling in excrement" (Sahih Bukhari and Muslim).

There is a lot of talk about what can and cannot be drawn in Islam. Some Muslims categorically claim that it is impossible to draw living objects, some wonder, some buy and collect paintings by Muslim artists.

In order not to detract from the role of God in Islam, it is forbidden to depict saints, prophets, living beings in their natural form. That is why decorative art, calligraphy, flat patterns on fabrics and carpets are more developed in Islam. Muslims still draw people and animals, but these images are greatly simplified and stylized. If a person is depicted, then his face is often blurred or covered with a veil. If animals are depicted, then they are also made in a simplified form, a horse can be with wings, you can even say that the images are similar to children's drawings.

It is not permitted to draw anything that depicts animate beings, because the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said, according to the sahih hadith: “Every image maker will be in the Fire.” And he (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: “The most severely punished of people on the Day of Resurrection will be the image-makers, those who tried to imitate the creation of Allah.” And he (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “The makers of these images will be punished on the Day of Resurrection, and they will be told, ‘Give life to that which you have created”.