The Coexist image (often styled as "CoeXisT" or "COEXIST") is an image created by Polish,

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

-based graphic designer Piotr Młodożeniec pl.html" ;"title=":pl:Piotr_Młodożeniec.html" ;"title="/nowiki>:pl:Piotr Młodożeniec">pl">:pl:Piotr_Młodożeniec.html" ;"title="/nowiki>:pl:Piotr Młodożeniec">pl/nowiki> in 2000 as an entry in an international art competition sponsored by the Museum on the Seam for Dialogue, Understanding and Coexistence. The original version was one of dozens of works displayed as large outdoor posters in Jerusalem in 2001. It is designed to represent tolerance between religions. Variations of this artwork have been used as

bumper stickers A bumper sticker is an adhesive label or sticker with a message, intended to be attached to the bumper of an automobile and to be read by the occupants of other vehicles—although they are often stuck onto other objects. Most bumper stickers are ...

and elements in

rock concert A rock concert is a performance of rock music. During the 1950s, several American musical groups experimented with new musical forms that fused country music, blues, and swing genre to produce the earliest examples of "rock and roll." The coin ...

Creation – ''COEXISTENCE'' art exhibition

, a Polish graphic designer based in

, had his original work chosen by a

jury A jury is a sworn body of people (jurors) convened to hear evidence and render an impartiality, impartial verdict (a Question of fact, finding of fact on a question) officially submitted to them by a court, or to set a sentence (law), penalty o ...

to be one of several dozen images to be displayed as x outdoor posters as part of a touring exhibit sponsored by the

Museum on the Seam Museum on the Seam is a socio-political contemporary art museum in Jerusalem, Israel. About the museum Founded in 1999, Museum on the Seam is housed in a neo-classical building designed by Andoni Baramki, a Palestinian Arab architect who built it ...

in Jerusalem. The exhibit opened to the public in Jerusalem in 2001. His original image consisted of the word COEXIST in all capital letters, with the C replaced by an oversized Muslim Crescent, the X replaced by an oversized

Star of David The Star of David (). is a generally recognized symbol of both Jewish identity and Judaism. Its shape is that of a hexagram: the compound of two equilateral triangles. A derivation of the ''seal of Solomon'', which was used for decorative ...

, and the T replaced by an oversized

Latin Cross A Latin cross or ''crux immissa'' is a type of cross in which the vertical beam sticks above the crossbeam, with the three upper arms either equally long or with the vertical topmost arm shorter than the two horizontal arms, and always with a mu ...

. (image), (description),

U2 Vertigo Tour

During the international 2005–2006

Vertigo Tour The Vertigo Tour was a worldwide concert tour by the Irish rock band U2. Staged in support of the group's 2004 album ''How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb'', the tour visited arenas and stadiums between March 2005 and December 2006. The Vertigo Tour ...

of the Irish rock band U2, the original version of the image played a key role. Shortly after playing "

Sometimes You Can't Make It on Your Own "Sometimes You Can't Make It on Your Own" is a song by Irish rock band U2. It is the third track on their eleventh studio album, ''How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb'' (2004), and was released as the album's second single worldwide except in Nort ...

", the group would play politically-themed songs. During the opening portion of " Love and Peace or Else",

Bono Paul David Hewson (born 10 May 1960), known by his stage name Bono (), is an Irish singer-songwriter, activist, and philanthropist. He is the lead vocalist and primary lyricist of the rock band U2. Born and raised in Dublin, he attended M ...

wore a white headband bearing a handwritten version of the word. In some venues, including Mexico City, the word was displayed on large electronic signs. "U2 in Mexico City on the 'Vertigo' tour – photo taken during the playing of 'Sunday Bloody Sunday'

Bumper sticker

The image and variations of it are used as automobile

bumper sticker A bumper sticker is an adhesive label or sticker with a message, intended to be attached to the bumper of an automobile and to be read by the occupants of other vehicles—although they are often stuck onto other objects. Most bumper stickers are ...

s. The bumper stickers first began to emerge in the United States in the early 2000s in partial response to the military involvement in

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

and

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

which began after the events of

September 11, 2001 The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commerc ...

. The stickers signify the capability or desire of humans to live together in peace. One common version of the bumper sticker spells "COEXIST" using an Islamic crescent moon for the "C", a

peace sign A number of peace symbols have been used many ways in various cultures and contexts. The dove and olive branch was used symbolically by early Christians and then eventually became a secular peace symbol, popularized by a ''Dove'' lithograph by ...

for the "O", the Hindu Om symbol for the "E”, a

for the "X", a

pentacle A pentacle (also spelled and pronounced as ''pantacle'' in Thelema, following Aleister Crowley, though that spelling ultimately derived from Éliphas Lévi) "The Pantacle of Frater V. I. O." is a talisman that is used in magical evocation, and ...

for the dot of the "I", a

yin-yang symbol In Chinese philosophy, a ''taijitu'' () is a symbol or diagram () representing Taiji () in both its monist ('' wuji'') and its dualist (yin and yang) aspects. Such a diagram was first introduced by Neo-Confucian philosopher Zhou Dunyi (; 10 ...

for the "S", and a Christian cross for the "T". This version, designed by Jerry Jaspar, is perhaps the most common version of the bumper sticker. The prevalence of the COEXIST bumper stickers has been noted in the

Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Gov ...

region centered on

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

. Users of the bumper stickers are often not practicing adherents of religion. This has led to one academic, Mark Coppenger, of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary to criticize the use of the symbol by atheists and to also question the ability of the bumper sticker to affect a wider audience.

Legal disputes

In 2005, Młodożeniec and U2 were unaware of each other. They were also unaware that a company in

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...

already filed for a trademark in the United States in 2003. At the time, as there was no official U2 merchandise carrying this image, U2 fans created their own. The Indiana company filed suit against companies like

CafePress CafePress, Inc. is an American online retailer of stock and user- customized on-demand products. The company was founded in San Mateo, California, but is now headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky along with its production facility. In 2001, Cafe ...

in May 2005 in an effort to stop sales of merchandise they had not authorized. Młodożeniec's attorneys maintained that he owned the copyright to the image. Separately, The Museum on the Seam, which sponsored the competition in which the original image first appeared in public, claimed legal rights to the image.

Versions and other variations

The following table shows the individual characters of the more well-known versions, either as

Unicode Unicode, formally The Unicode Standard,The formal version reference is is an information technology Technical standard, standard for the consistent character encoding, encoding, representation, and handling of Character (computing), text expre ...

characters, icons, or descriptions. ;Other published variations: * Translations, such as Coexista (at a U2 concert in Mexico City)

Parodies

There are several parodies, spelling out words such as 'Toxic', 'Fiction', 'Contradict', 'Atheist', 'Heathen', and 'Convert'. There is also an anti-Islamic version with the image of the crescent altered with the addition of explosives. Other parodies include a Communist

hammer and sickle The hammer and sickle (Unicode: "☭") zh, s=锤子和镰刀, p=Chuízi hé liándāo or zh, s=镰刀锤子, p=Liándāo chuízi, labels=no is a symbol meant to represent proletarian solidarity, a union between agricultural and industri ...

for the "E" and a

swastika The swastika (卐 or 卍) is an ancient religious and cultural symbol, predominantly in various Eurasian, as well as some African and American cultures, now also widely recognized for its appropriation by the Nazi Party and by neo-Nazis. It ...

for the "X", indicating the dangers inherent in totalitarian ideologies, and weapon-related versions.

References

External links

* * * * * – several variations of the symbol * {{cite AV media , url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zm6na9tz4-s , title=The big fight over Coexist , date=June 8, 2016 , publisher= Vox , via=YouTube Infographics Slogans Relationships between religions