The Cartoons that Shook the World
Encyclopedia
The Cartoons that Shook the World is a 2009 book by Brandeis University
professor Jytte Klausen
about the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy
. Klausen contends that the controversy was deliberately stoked up by people with vested interests on all sides, and argues against the view that it was based on a cultural misunderstanding about the depiction of Muhammad
. The book itself caused controversy before its publication when Yale University Press removed all images from the book, including the controversial cartoons themselves and some other images of Muhammad.
. Prior to publication, officials at the Press decided to remove all images of Muhammad
from the forthcoming book, including all of the controversial cartoons and a number of historical images of Muhammad from both Muslim and non-Muslim sources, including a 19th-century engraving by Gustave Doré
showing Muhammad being tormented in a scene from Dante's Inferno According to the Yale Daily News
, the story first broke in the New York Times on Thursday, August 13, 2009.
The Press defended its decision, releasing a statement explaining that the University had consulted counterterrorism officials, the highest-level Muslim official at the United Nations, foreign ambassadors from Muslim countries, and Islamic Studies scholars, and that they had "all" voiced serious fears about provoking more violence.
Sheila Blair, Calderwood Professor of Fine Arts at Boston College
and an expert on the art of the Islamic world was one of the authorities consulted by the Yale University Press. She told The Guardian
that she had "strongly urged" the Press to publish the images since, "To deny that such images were made is to distort the historical record and to bow to the biased view of some modern zealots who would deny that others at other times and places perceived and illustrated Muhammad in different ways."
Boston College
professor Jonathan Laurence, co-author of Integrating Islam: Political and Religious Challenges in Contemporary France, has said that he told the Press that it should reproduce the original Jyllands-Posten newspaper page that included the cartoon. “I was consulted by the press about the decision whether or not to publish. I suggested that they publish the newspaper page in its entirety as documentary evidence of the episode being discussed,” he told The Times
. “I actually know another professor who was also consulted and also told them to go ahead, but do it in a responsible manner.”
Cary Nelson
, the president of the American Association of University Professors
issued a statement describing the decision not to publish the illustrations as prior restraint
. “What is to stop publishers from suppressing an author’s words if it appears they may offend religious fundamentalists or groups threatening violence?” he said. “We deplore this decision and its potential consequences.” Nelson accused the Press of acceding to the "anticipated demands" of "terrorists."
According to The Bookseller
, the Press has come under "heavy criticism" for its decision to censor
the illustrations.
Christopher Hitchens
took issue with both the decision to expunge the cartoons and with the statement by the director of the Press, John Donatich
, who told the New York Times that while he has "never blinked" before in the face of controversy, "when it came between that and blood on my hands, there was no question." Hitchens compared this line of reasoning to the reasoning of people who "argue that women who won't wear the veil have 'provoked' those who rape or disfigure them … and now Yale has adopted that 'logic' as its own." Concluding, "What a cause of shame that the campus of Nathan Hale
should have pre-emptively run up the white flag and then cringingly taken the blood guilt of potential assassins and tyrants upon itself."
According to Roger Kimball
, Professor Klausen was informed of the decision to expunge the cartoons and other images of Muhammad from the book at a meeting in Boston attended by John Donatich, director of Yale University Press, Linda Lorimer
, Vice President and Secretary of Yale University
, and Marcia Inhorn
, professor of Anthropology and chairman of the Council on Middle East Studies at Yale.
According to Professor Klausen, “My book is an academic book with footnotes and the notion that it would set off civil war in Nigeria is laughable,” she added that her book has become part of “a battle over the limits of freedom of speech”.
by Professor Gary Hull of Duke University
. According to Hull, the new publication is "a 'picture book' – or errata to the bowdlerized version of Klausen's book."
According to the publisher,
Brandeis University
Brandeis University is an American private research university with a liberal arts focus. It is located in the southwestern corner of Waltham, Massachusetts, nine miles west of Boston. The University has an enrollment of approximately 3,200 undergraduate and 2,100 graduate students. In 2011, it...
professor Jytte Klausen
Jytte Klausen
Jytte Klausen is a Danish-born scholar of politics who teaches at Brandeis University in Massachusetts.Klausen is a graduate of the University of Aarhus who earned her doctorate at the New School for Social Research in New York....
about the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy
Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy
The Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy began after 12 editorial cartoons, most of which depicted the Islamic prophet Muhammad, were published in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten on 30 September 2005...
. Klausen contends that the controversy was deliberately stoked up by people with vested interests on all sides, and argues against the view that it was based on a cultural misunderstanding about the depiction of Muhammad
Depictions of Muhammad
The permissibility of depictions of Muhammad, the founder of Islam, has long been a concern in the history of Islam. Oral and written descriptions are readily accepted by all traditions of Islam, but there is disagreement about visual depictions....
. The book itself caused controversy before its publication when Yale University Press removed all images from the book, including the controversial cartoons themselves and some other images of Muhammad.
Publishing history
The book was scheduled to be published in November 2009 by Yale University PressYale University Press
Yale University Press is a book publisher founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day. It became an official department of Yale University in 1961, but remains financially and operationally autonomous....
. Prior to publication, officials at the Press decided to remove all images of Muhammad
Muhammad
Muhammad |ligature]] at U+FDF4 ;Arabic pronunciation varies regionally; the first vowel ranges from ~~; the second and the last vowel: ~~~. There are dialects which have no stress. In Egypt, it is pronounced not in religious contexts...
from the forthcoming book, including all of the controversial cartoons and a number of historical images of Muhammad from both Muslim and non-Muslim sources, including a 19th-century engraving by Gustave Doré
Gustave Doré
Paul Gustave Doré was a French artist, engraver, illustrator and sculptor. Doré worked primarily with wood engraving and steel engraving.-Biography:...
showing Muhammad being tormented in a scene from Dante's Inferno According to the Yale Daily News
Yale Daily News
The Yale Daily News is an independent student newspaper published by Yale University students in New Haven, Connecticut since January 28, 1878...
, the story first broke in the New York Times on Thursday, August 13, 2009.
The Press defended its decision, releasing a statement explaining that the University had consulted counterterrorism officials, the highest-level Muslim official at the United Nations, foreign ambassadors from Muslim countries, and Islamic Studies scholars, and that they had "all" voiced serious fears about provoking more violence.
Sheila Blair, Calderwood Professor of Fine Arts at Boston College
Boston College
Boston College is a private Jesuit research university located in the village of Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, USA. The main campus is bisected by the border between the cities of Boston and Newton. It has 9,200 full-time undergraduates and 4,000 graduate students. Its name reflects its early...
and an expert on the art of the Islamic world was one of the authorities consulted by the Yale University Press. She told The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
that she had "strongly urged" the Press to publish the images since, "To deny that such images were made is to distort the historical record and to bow to the biased view of some modern zealots who would deny that others at other times and places perceived and illustrated Muhammad in different ways."
Boston College
Boston College
Boston College is a private Jesuit research university located in the village of Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, USA. The main campus is bisected by the border between the cities of Boston and Newton. It has 9,200 full-time undergraduates and 4,000 graduate students. Its name reflects its early...
professor Jonathan Laurence, co-author of Integrating Islam: Political and Religious Challenges in Contemporary France, has said that he told the Press that it should reproduce the original Jyllands-Posten newspaper page that included the cartoon. “I was consulted by the press about the decision whether or not to publish. I suggested that they publish the newspaper page in its entirety as documentary evidence of the episode being discussed,” he told The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
. “I actually know another professor who was also consulted and also told them to go ahead, but do it in a responsible manner.”
Cary Nelson
Cary Nelson
Cary Nelson , professor of English and Jubilee Professor of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, is the current president of the American Association of University Professors and a prominent scholar-activist....
, the president of the American Association of University Professors
American Association of University Professors
The American Association of University Professors is an organization of professors and other academics in the United States. AAUP membership is about 47,000, with over 500 local campus chapters and 39 state organizations...
issued a statement describing the decision not to publish the illustrations as prior restraint
Prior restraint
Prior restraint or prior censorship is censorship in which certain material may not be published or communicated, rather than not prohibiting publication but making the publisher answerable for what is made known...
. “What is to stop publishers from suppressing an author’s words if it appears they may offend religious fundamentalists or groups threatening violence?” he said. “We deplore this decision and its potential consequences.” Nelson accused the Press of acceding to the "anticipated demands" of "terrorists."
According to The Bookseller
The Bookseller
The Bookseller is a British magazine reporting news on the publishing industry. Neill Denny is editor-in-chief of the weekly print edition of the magazine, while Philip Jones is deputy editor, having recently been promoted from the position of managing editor of the Bookseller.com...
, the Press has come under "heavy criticism" for its decision to censor
Censorship
thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
the illustrations.
Christopher Hitchens
Christopher Hitchens
Christopher Eric Hitchens is an Anglo-American author and journalist whose books, essays, and journalistic career span more than four decades. He has been a columnist and literary critic at The Atlantic, Vanity Fair, Slate, World Affairs, The Nation, Free Inquiry, and became a media fellow at the...
took issue with both the decision to expunge the cartoons and with the statement by the director of the Press, John Donatich
John Donatich
-Early life:He received a BA from New York University in 1982, graduating magna cum laude. He also got a master's degree from NYU in 1984, graduating summa cum laude.-Career:...
, who told the New York Times that while he has "never blinked" before in the face of controversy, "when it came between that and blood on my hands, there was no question." Hitchens compared this line of reasoning to the reasoning of people who "argue that women who won't wear the veil have 'provoked' those who rape or disfigure them … and now Yale has adopted that 'logic' as its own." Concluding, "What a cause of shame that the campus of Nathan Hale
Nathan Hale
Nathan Hale was a soldier for the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. He volunteered for an intelligence-gathering mission in New York City but was captured by the British...
should have pre-emptively run up the white flag and then cringingly taken the blood guilt of potential assassins and tyrants upon itself."
According to Roger Kimball
Roger Kimball
Roger Kimball is a conservative U.S. art critic and social commentator. He was educated at Cheverus High School, a Jesuit institution in South Portland, Maine, and then at Bennington College, where he took a BA in philosophy and classical Greek, and Yale University...
, Professor Klausen was informed of the decision to expunge the cartoons and other images of Muhammad from the book at a meeting in Boston attended by John Donatich, director of Yale University Press, Linda Lorimer
Linda Lorimer
Linda Lorimer is an American university administrator.Lorimer graduated from the Norfolk Academy, Hollins University, and Yale Law School. She practiced law in New York City with the law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell before holding a series of administrative positions at Yale between 1978 and...
, Vice President and Secretary of Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
, and Marcia Inhorn
Marcia Inhorn
Marcia C. Inhorn is the William K. Lanman Jr. professor of anthropology and international affairs in the Department of Anthropology and The Whitney and Betty MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies at Yale University...
, professor of Anthropology and chairman of the Council on Middle East Studies at Yale.
According to Professor Klausen, “My book is an academic book with footnotes and the notion that it would set off civil war in Nigeria is laughable,” she added that her book has become part of “a battle over the limits of freedom of speech”.
Publication of the expunged images
In November, 2009, Voltaire Press published all of the images expunged by Yale University in a book entitled Muhammad: The "Banned" ImagesMuhammad: The "Banned" Images
Muhammad: The "Banned" Images is a 2009 book published in response to the expunging of all images of Muhammad from The Cartoons that Shook the World, a 2009 book about the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy by Jytte Klausen published by Yale University Press...
by Professor Gary Hull of Duke University
Duke University
Duke University is a private research university located in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present day town of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco industrialist James B...
. According to Hull, the new publication is "a 'picture book' – or errata to the bowdlerized version of Klausen's book."
Thesis