An historian friend did a beautiful job stating the unspoken underlying reasoning at the heart of the news magazine articles I commented on in the (last, two):
The actions of a few artists outweigh all the fiqh rulings of the past 1400 years.
The absurdity of this reasoning becomes clear when it is transferred to similar cases, like that the actions of murderers, rapists, thieves, or drunkards outweigh all the fiqh of the past 1400 years – as well as the judges who convicted them! Those who claim that descriptive Muslim behavior suffices for knowing Islamic norms and prescriptions will soon find that consistency will require them to accept many things that are nasty and contradictory. Clearly, the actions of a few artists do not outweigh the fiqh rulings of the past 1400.