Standing proud and symbolising freedom, Lady Liberty, one of the world’s most well-known statutes in New York was originally conceived as a Muslim peasant woman.
In fact, the statue was to have stood at the approach to the Suez Canal instead of Staten Island in New York.
So how did this All-American symbol of freedom end up in New York and not being a Muslim? It was all about finances or lack of it. Bartholdi was unable to convince Ismail Pasha, the then khedive (viceroy) of Egypt, to finance his project. However, determined to erect a colossus, he sailed to America with drawings of the Muslim woman transformed to the personification of Liberty.
As he sailed into New York harbour, he spotted the ‘egg-shaped’ Bedloe’s Island and so a new idea took shape in his mind. The statue was to have a new location and new meaning.
Soon after, the sculptor struck up a conversation with the French abolitionist and strong supporter of the North in the American Civil War, Édouard René de Laboulaye, who suggested that France should offer the US a gift in recognition of the end of the war. After years of negotiation, the two decided that America would pay for the Statue of Liberty’s pedestal and France for the statue itself.
With the debate raging in the US about whether to accept Syrian refugees or not, especially after the terror attacks in Paris last week which were claimed by the Islamic State, it has become essential to remember the origins of the famous icon of freedom.
The words on the Statue of Liberty: “Give me your tired, your poor/ Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,” written by American poet Emma Lazarus in 1880s served as a welcome to Jewish refugees who came to America to escape persecution in Eastern European countries.
So as some states shut their doors to Syrian refugees and as US politicians such as Ted Cruz suggest that only Christian Syrian refugees should be allowed to enter, the response of critics to these statements with the ideals that the Statue of Liberty stands for echo a particular historical resonance.
This article originally appeared on Daily Beast.
