Während die Amerikaner Milliarden von Dollar und Tausende von Leben opfern, um im Irak und in Afghanistan die Menschenrechte, die Freiheit und die westlichen Werte zu verteidigen, kämpfen daheim die Angehörigen der gebildeten Stände vor allem um das Recht auf Feigheit. Die Entscheidung der Yale University Press, ein Buch über die Mohammed-Karikaturen zu veröffentlichen, ohne diese zu zeigen, wächst sich zu einem kleinen Skandal aus.

For a major university and a prestigious publishing house to bow to the dictates of Islamist murderers and those “diplomats” and “scholars” who believe in appeasing Islamism sets a new standard for Ivy League political correctness. But the rot goes deeper than that. Those who worry about a Europe where any criticism of Islamist extremism is treated as “Islamophobia” and racism should worry about the beachhead that school of thought has established in New Haven and other citadels of academia. A Western culture that is willing to censor scholarly work so as to avoid upsetting irrational extremists in the Arab and Muslim world is in serious danger of losing the will to defend itself. http://www.commentarymagazine.com/blogs/index.php/tobin/76072

Sheila Blair, professor of Islamic and Asian art at Norma Jean Calderwood University and one of the authorities consulted by Yale about publication, said she had “strongly urged” the press to publish the images. “To deny that such images were made is to distort the historical record and to bow to the biased view of some modern zealots who would deny that others at other times and places perceived and illustrated Muhammad in different ways,” she wrote in a letter to the New York Times which is yet to be published. http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/aug/14/publisher-bans-images-muhammad

Die AAUP (American Association of University Professors) gab gestern eine Erklärung ab, die so beginnt: “We do not negotiate with terrorists. We just accede to their anticipated demands.” http://www.aaup.org/AAUP/about/pres/let/YalePress.htm

Helen Epstein hatte die Gelegenheit, mit der Verfasserin des Buches, Jytte Klausen, zu sprechen:

How did this situation evolve?

The basic facts are in the NY Times story. Yale University told the press to remove the illustrations: first the cartoons, then a second illustration, and finally any illustration.

When you first signed your contract, did you plan to publish all the cartoons?

Yes. But please note that I am not talking about publishing each cartoon but reprinting the entire page as it was printed in the Danish newspaper on Sept 30, 2005. People think they know all about the cartoons but few people understand the humor in some of them, the references to specific Danish events, etc.. Few people notice that some of the cartoons portray Muslims as victims of the editors, and make fun of the editors. Others are racialist depictions in the tradition of European anti-semitism. That is why it was important to include them. Still, I accepted they could be risky for a university and consented to removing the page. The other illustrations have never proven controversial.

How does the decision reflect on the content of your book?

The illustrations were central to an argument in one chapter about the history of depiction in Persian, Ottoman, and Western art. The removal of the cartoons was not so serious because people can find the pages elsewhere. But the discussion of the history of depiction will probably be hard to follow.

Do you think Yale came under pressure from anyone or was just motivated by fear?

No, Yale University was not pressured. Fear perhaps in the case of the cartoons, but the argument about security risk gradually shifted to the terrain of less tangible concerns about offending or being seen as anti-Arab. My book is not anti-Muslim, and I find the assumption that Muslims “out there” may be ready to erupt into primordial anger at bad pictures offensive…
http://blog.theartsfuse.com/

See also:
Why Won’t Yale Identify the ‘Experts’ Who Advocated Pulling the Illustrations of Muhammad?
http://www.campus-watch.org/blog/2009/08/why-wont-yale-identify-the-experts-who-advocated

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