New Chapter In Flap Over 2005 Muhammad Cartoons

by Diane Orson
NPR
October 26, 2009

https://www.legal-project.org/539/new-chapter-in-flap-over-2005-muhammad-cartoons

Excerpt:

When a Danish newspaper published cartoons in 2005 depicting the Prophet Muhammad, it caused riots around the world and some 200 people were killed.

Yale University Press has published a new book about the controversy, called The Cartoons That Shook the World. But the book has sparked a controversy of its own.

About a dozen Yale University students recently protested a visit by Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard, who drew the now-iconic image of Muhammad wearing a lit bomb in his turban with the creed of Islam written in Arabic on the wrappings.

Westergaard says the right to free speech includes expressing ideas that people may not want to hear.

"For some people, I am a kind of provocation, but I can live with that," said Westergaard. "I go for the dialogue, but it is not very easy. I have tried to speak with many Muslims, and often the conversation has ended up a curse. You know, 'go to hell and burn up.' And I have asked, 'Perhaps we could talk in hell?'"

Committee Deems Cartoons Inappropriate

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