Yale University has removed cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed from an upcoming book about how they caused outrage across the Muslim world, drawing criticism from prominent alumni and a national group of university professors.
Yale cited fears of violence.
Yale University Press, which the university owns, removed the 12 caricatures from the book The Cartoons That Shook the World by Brandeis University professor Jytte Klausen. The book is scheduled to be released next week.
A Danish newspaper originally published the cartoons — including one depicting Mohammed wearing a bomb-shaped turban — in 2005. Other Western publications reprinted them.
The following year, the cartoons triggered massive protests from Morocco to Indonesia. Rioters torched Danish and other Western diplomatic missions. Some Muslim countries boycotted Danish products.
Islamic law generally opposes any depiction of the prophet, even favorable, for fear it could lead to idolatry.
“I think it’s horrifying that the campus of [American Revolutionary War hero] Nathan Hale has become the first place where America surrenders to this kind of fear because of what extremists might possibly do,” said Michael Steinberg, an attorney and Yale graduate.
Steinberg was among 25 alumni who signed a protest letter sent Friday to Yale Alumni Magazine that urged the university to restore the drawings to the book. Other signers included former US ambassador to the UN John Bolton.
“I think it’s intellectual cowardice,” Bolton said last Thursday. “I think it’s very self-defeating on Yale’s part. To me it’s just inexplicable.”
Cary Nelson, president of the American Association of University Professors, wrote in a recent letter that Yale’s decision effectively means: “We do not negotiate with terrorists. We just accede to their anticipated demands.”
In a statement explaining the decision, Yale University Press said it decided to exclude a Danish newspaper page of the cartoons and other depictions of Mohammed after asking the university for help on the issue. It said the university had consulted diplomats, counter-terrorism officials and the top Muslim official at the UN.
“The decision rested solely on the experts’ assessment that there existed a substantial likelihood of violence that might take the lives of innocent victims,” the statement said.
Republication of the cartoons has repeatedly resulted in violence around the world, leading to more than 200 deaths and hundreds of injuries, the statement said. It also noted that major newspapers in the US and Britain have declined to print the cartoons.
“Yale and Yale University Press are deeply committed to freedom of speech and expression, so the issues raised here were difficult,” the statement said. “The press would never have reached the decision it did on the grounds that some might be offended by portrayals of the Prophet Muhammad.”
John Donatich, director of Yale University Press, said the critics are “grandstanding.”
He said it was not a case of censorship because the university did not suppress original contentthat was not available in other places.
“I would never have agreed to censor original content,” he said.
Klausen was surprised by the decision when she learned of it last week.
She said scholarly reviewers and Yale’s publication committee comprised of faculty recommended the cartoons be included.
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