Contentions has two excellent blog posts, the first by Noah Pollak and the second by Ted R. Bromund, about the recent decision by Yale University to censor an upcoming book it is releasing about the 2005 Danish Muhammad cartoon controversy, The Cartoons That Shook the World, by removing from it the relevant cartoons themselves and several other depictions of Muhammad. The reasoning behind their deletion, as cited by Martin Kramer, is that they would “provoke a violent outcry” if published in the book, a claim Contentions (and Christopher Hitchens) rightly slams as ridiculous and as one that absolves the perpetrators of such violence of any culpability for their actions:
Also, as Roger Kimball notes, this establishes a dangerous standard by which other depictions of Muhammad may be censored:
Even if these fears never materialize, this is another disappointing moment for the rapidly diminishing ideal of open discourse on college campuses.
