Mohammed Cartoon Controversy: FIRE Response to Intimidation and Newspaper Disputes

Category: Free Speech
Schools: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Harvard University Century College University of Arizona Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute New York University University of Chicago Northern Illinois University University of Wisconsin – Madison University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill Purdue University

As a result of worldwide controversy regarding caricatures of the prophet Mohammed, first published in a Danish newspaper, free speech was being openly disregarded on American college campuses. In the weeks following the printing of the cartoon, students, professors, and student publications not only reprinted the controversial cartoons but even created their own satirical cartoons depicting Mohammed. Chilling of speech in relation to the cartoon was found at Century College, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and New York University, amongst others.