Your Danish Cartoons Hangover Update

Follow-up coverage in The Guardian of the decision by Yale University Press not to re-run the Jyllands-Posten cartoons of Muhammad that were the core of an eventual extended series of riots as well as no other illustration featuring Muhammad in the book The Cartoons That Shook The World seems to indicate something less than the universal expert recommendation to pull all images that some feel was what was conveyed in the initial New York Times editorial.

The Guardian found one of the advisers contacted by the Press about the book -- Sheila Blair, co-author of Islamic Art -- who has apparently written a letter to the Times suggesting that she at least was for publication of certain images, if not all of them. The lines between the cartoon images and the supporting illustrations and what group of people were asked what and when and then what was said about each group seems to me blurry enough no one's going to be able to accuse anyone of distorting the truth even though some may try. It does seem to me there was less than total agreement on all subjects, and I bet there's a bit more digging to do.

Again, I think it's wrong not to publish these images in the pursuit of knowledge as what they look like is crucial to our understanding of what happened, no matter whether doing so delights or distresses us.
 
posted 8:20 am PST | Permalink
 

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