In this era of digital multiplicity, images are reproduced atdazzling speed and spread instantly across the globe, yet they trigger vastly different responses. Images are not sim-ply depictions; they become visible to beholders in the con-text of embodied, habitual practices of looking, display,and figuration — a visual regime. In pluralistic settingscharacterized by cultural and religious diversity as well asthe coexistence of religious and secular positions, variousvisual regimes compete, converge, and clash, giving riseto the phenomenon of offensive images. Recent tensionsaround purportedly offensive images and visual perfor-mances — from the commotion and violent conflictsaround the Muhammad cartoons to the persecution ofPussy Riot — betray conflicting sensibilities, value sys-tems, and visual regimes with their specific taboos and pre-ferred modes of representation. Contemporary culturalsettings are characterized by a diversity of participants andthus a concomitant coexistence of diverse visual regimes with their specific attitudes toward images that may easilyclash. Unmistakable in these tensions is the presence of religion.