Book on Muhammad cartoons won’t include controversial images

(RNS) Yale University Press will not include infamous illustrations of the Prophet Muhammad in an upcoming book, “Cartoons That Shook the World,” which explores a Danish newspaper’s controversial decision in 2005 to publish cartoon depictions of Muhammad. The book, by Jytte Klausen, professor of comparative politics at Brandeis University, is due out in November. The […]

(RNS) Yale University Press will not include infamous illustrations of the Prophet Muhammad in an upcoming book, “Cartoons That Shook the World,” which explores a Danish newspaper’s controversial decision in 2005 to publish cartoon depictions of Muhammad.

The book, by Jytte Klausen, professor of comparative politics at Brandeis University, is due out in November. The book will not reproduce any of the 12 original cartoons that appeared in the Sept. 30, 2005 edition of Jyllands-Posten, nor will it contain other illustrations of the Prophet Muhammad.

When European newspapers originally published the cartoons, they set off sometimes violent protests by Muslim groups around the world. Islam prohibits any depictions of the prophet.


The decision to refrain from reprinting the images was made after scholars, government officials and foreign ambassadors expressed concern that the cartoons might ignite violence a second time, according to a Yale University Press statement.

“I agree completely with the other expert opinions Yale has received,” Marcia Inhorn, professor of anthropology and international affairs and chair of the Council on Middle East Studies at Yale, said in a statement. “If Yale publishes this book with any of the proposed illustrations, it is likely to provoke a violent outcry”

Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), said the decision is really up to the publishers.

Although American Muslims don’t like to see unnecessary reproductions of illustrations they deem derogatory, reprinting the cartoons might be worthwhile if it’s part of an academic discussion, Hooper said.

“Would there have been an outcry? I doubt it,” Hooper said.

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