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Yale Sides With Dictators by Censoring Cartoons

Muhammad decision is short-sighted

By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff

Posted Aug 29, 2009 10:57 AM CDT
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(Newser) – Yale University has “handed a victory to extremists” by deciding to pull images of the prophet Muhammad from its upcoming book on the Danish cartoon controversy, writes Mona Eltahawy in the Washington Post. Eltahawy is a Muslim living in Denmark, and she knows full well that the cartoons offended some Muslims like her mother. But she says the protests were mostly “an exercise in manufactured outrage.”

No one protested when the cartoons were published, or even when an Egyptian newspaper reprinted them a month later. The protests began months later, when radical leaders saw an opportunity to burnish their Islamic credentials. “Unfortunately, those dictators and radicals who want to speak for all Muslims—and yet care little for Muslim life—have found an ally in Yale University Press.”

Supporters of Pakistani Islamic party Jamat-e-Islami shout slogans and burn a Danish flag to show their anger over cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad, March 2, 2008 in Karachi, Pakistan.
Supporters of Pakistani Islamic party Jamat-e-Islami shout slogans and burn a Danish flag to show their anger over cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad, March 2, 2008 in Karachi, Pakistan.   (AP Photo/Fareed Khan)
Tens of thousands of Sudanese in Khartoum, Feb. 27, 2008, protest at a government-backed rally denouncing the publishing in Danish newspapers of a cartoon satirizing Islam's Prophet Muhammad.
Tens of thousands of Sudanese in Khartoum, Feb. 27, 2008, protest at a government-backed rally denouncing the publishing in Danish newspapers of a cartoon satirizing Islam's Prophet Muhammad.   (AP Photo/Abd Raouf)
The cover of The Cartoons that Shook the World.
The cover of "The Cartoons that Shook the World."   (Yale Press)
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Sunni Muslims observe a prohibition on depictions of the prophet — but since
when has Yale? - Mona Eltahawy

Yale has sided with the various Muslim dictators and radical groups that used the cartoons to "prove" who could best "defend" Muhammad against the Danes and, by extension, burnish their Islamic credentials. - Mona Eltahawy

Does Yale realize that it has proven what Flemming Rose said was his original intent in commissioning the cartoons — that artists were self-censoring out of fear of Muslim radicals? - Mona Eltahawy

« Prev« Prev | Next »Next » Slideshow
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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 16 comments
riffran
Aug 30, 2009 8:30 AM CDT
Hey wait...I like The life of Bryan..*whistling * the sunny side of life
Spudsy
Aug 30, 2009 5:22 AM CDT
In high school I dreamed of Algebra books with no numbers. Yale is halfway there.
Spudsy
Aug 30, 2009 5:20 AM CDT
Exactly why I didn't attend Yale. That and the money. And the ACT score. And my alcohol problem. And I'm not that bright. And my porn career would have been put on the back burner.

 
Islam • Yale University • censorship • cartoon • Muhammad • Danish Mohammed cartoons

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