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Yale University Press Klausen Book Statement
Statement by Yale University Press
August 14, 2009
Yale University Press will
publish The Cartoons That Shook the World,
by Jytte Klausen, this November. The Press hopes that her excellent scholarly
treatment of the Danish cartoon controversy will be read by those seeking
deeper understanding of its causes and consequences.
After careful consideration, the Press has
declined to reproduce the September 30, 2005, Jyllands-Posten newspaper page that included the cartoons, as well
as other depictions of the Prophet Muhammad that the author proposed to
include.
The original publication in
2005 of the cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad led to a series of violent
incidents, and repeated violent acts have followed republication as recently as
June 2008, when a car bomb exploded outside the Danish embassy in Islamabad,
Pakistan, killing eight people and injuring at least thirty. The next day Al-Qaeda
claimed responsibility for the bombing, calling it revenge for the “insulting
drawings.”
Republication of the
cartoons—not just the original printing of them in Denmark—has repeatedly
resulted in violence around the world. More than two hundred lives have been
lost, and hundreds more have been injured. It is noteworthy that, at the time
of the initial crisis over the cartoons in 2005–2006, the New York Times, Washington
Post, and Boston Globe declined
to print them, as did every major newspaper in the United Kingdom.
The publishing of the book
raised the obvious question of whether there remains a serious threat of
violence if the cartoons were reprinted in the context of a book about the
controversy. The Press asked the University for assistance on this question.
The University consulted
both domestic and international experts on behalf of the Press. Among those
consulted were counterterrorism officials in the United States and in the
United Kingdom, U.S. diplomats who had served as ambassadors in the Middle
East, foreign ambassadors from Muslim countries, the top Muslim official at the
United Nations, and senior scholars in Islamic studies. The experts with the
most insight about the threats of violence repeatedly expressed serious
concerns about violence occurring following publication of either the cartoons
or other images of the Prophet Muhammad in a book about the cartoons.
Ibrahim Gambari,
under-secretary-general of the United Nations and senior adviser to the secretary-general,
the highest ranking Muslim at the United Nations, stated, “You can count on
violence if any illustration of the Prophet is published. It will cause riots I
predict from Indonesia to Nigeria.”
Ambassador
Joseph Verner Reed, dean of the under-secretaries-general, under-secretary-general
of the United Nations, and special adviser to the secretary-general, informed
us, “These images of Muhammad could and would be used as a convenient excuse
for inciting violent anti-American actions.”
John Negroponte, former U.S. deputy secretary of state, U.S. director of national intelligence,
U.S. permanent representative to the United Nations, and U.S. ambassador to Iraq and other nations,
said, "When Yale informed me of this challenging issue confronting the University Press earlier this
summer, I advised that I had serious concerns about the Press publishing these cartoons. Given the
history of this volatile issue—and my diplomatic experience, which included service in the Middle
East—I believed that publishing the cartoons could very well result in violence of an unpredictable
nature. I am aware of the expert counsel Yale received from well-placed diplomats, intelligence and
law enforcement officials, and scholars in Islamic studies. I agree with the overwhelming majority
of them. There existed an appreciable chance of violence occurring if these images were published by
the Press. There is a clear track record of violence associated with the publication and republication
of these images. This is more than a historical episode. The controversy continues,
with violence occurring as recently as last year. Although the Danish cartoons crisis is certainly a
topic worthy of scholarly analysis, Yale University Press had to walk a fine line, given the possibility
that these images of the Prophet Muhammad risked perpetuating this violent controversy, as well as
distracting readers from serious scholarship on this important subject."
Marcia Inhorn, professor
of anthropology and international affairs and chair of the Council on Middle
East Studies at Yale, said, “I agree completely with the other expert opinions
Yale has received. If Yale publishes this book with any of the proposed
illustrations, it is likely to provoke a violent outcry.”
Fareed Zakaria, editor of Newsweek International, writes, "As a journalist, I believe deeply in the First Amendment," but "the republishing of these images would have reopened old wounds."
Charles Hill, who served in the State Department during the Reagan Administration, argues, "There is a difference between defending the freedom of even vile speech and putting the legitimacy and reputation of your institution . . . behind it."
Given the quantity and
quality of the expert advice Yale received, the author consented, with reluctance,
to publish the book without any of these visual images.
Yale and Yale University
Press are deeply committed to freedom of speech and expression, so the issues
raised here were difficult. The University has no speech code, and the response
to “hate speech” on campus has always been the assertion that the appropriate
response to hate speech is not suppression but more speech, leading to a full
airing of views. The Press would never have reached the decision it did on the
grounds that some might be offended by portrayals of the Prophet Muhammad.
Indeed, Yale University Press has printed books in the past that included
images of the Prophet. The decision rested solely on the experts’ assessments
that there existed a substantial likelihood of violence that might take the
lives of innocent victims.
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