Writing for the blog of The New York Review of Books, Malise Ruthven examines why, five years after the printing of several cartoon depictions of Muhammad in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, the images remain so controversial. In discussing more recent incidents involving attempts to print the cartoons, Ruthven notes the Yale University Press’s eleventh-hour excising of the images (along with other historical, non-controversial images) from Jytte Klausen’s book The Cartoons That Shook the World. Ruthvert also notes the publication of Duke University Professor Gary Hull’s book Muhammad: The "Banned" Images, which included a statement on freedom of expression co-signed by FIRE and numerous other leaders in academia and civil liberties. Torch readers can learn more about FIRE’s involvement in the Yale University Press case here, and read an op-ed on the case by FIRE’s Will Creeley published in the Providence Journal here.
