Yale University, America’s third-oldest higher education institution, has refused to reprint Danish cartoons lampooning Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessing be upon him) in a new book about the crisis.
"(The decision was) overwhelming and unanimous,” John Donatich, Yale University Press Director, told The New York Times on Thursday, August 13.
He said reprinting the satirical cartoons in “The Cartoons That Shook the World” book would have been interpreted as “gratuitous”.
In 2005, Denmark’s Jyllands-Posten daily commission and printed 12 drawings of a man described as Prophet Muhammad, including one wearing a bomb-shaped turban and another showing him as a knife-wielding nomad flanked by shrouded women.
Yale University had consulted diplomats and exports on Islam before making a decision about the inclusion of the 12 caricatures in book, due in November.
“You can count on violence if any illustration of the prophet is published,” Donatich quoted Ibrahim Gambari, special adviser to the UN chief and Nigeria’s former foreign minister, as saying.
“It will cause riots, I predict, from Indonesia to Nigeria.”
The Danish cartoons had triggered massive demonstrations across the Muslim world and resulted in boycott of Danish products and interests.
The reprint of the controversial drawings, considered blasphemous under Islam, by European papers strained Muslim-West ties.
Message
Author Jytte Klausen reluctantly accepted the Yale University’s decision not to include the satirical drawings in her new book.
“I can understand that a university is risk averse, and they will make that choice,” said Klausen, a Danish-born professor of politics at Brandeis University.
“I agreed to the press’s decision to not print the cartoons and other hitherto uncontroversial illustrations featuring images of the Muslim prophet, with sadness.”
In her book, Klausen argues that the massive protests triggered by the cartoons were not a spontaneous reaction.
She insists that the caricatures were used as a pretext to mobilize dissent in the Muslim world.
“Muslim friends, leaders and activists thought that the incident was misunderstood.”
Klausen says her book is only meant to delve into the crisis.
“The book’s message is that we need to calm down and look at this carefully.
“I never intended the book to become another demonstration for or against the cartoons, and hope the book can still serve its intended purpose without illustrations.”