Danish cartoonist survives attack
Danish cartoonist survives attack
Kurt Westergaard cited Sept. 11 as the inspiration for his cartoons.
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Two months after visiting Yale, cartoonist Kurt Westergaard was attacked at his home in Aarhus, Denmark, on the evening of Jan. 1.
The attack, which the Danish intelligence service has linked to terrorism, is the latest of countless threats and attempts against the artist's life since 2005, when the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten printed controversial images of the Prophet Muhammed drawn by Westergaard and several other cartoonists.
Westergaard's name was a hot topic at Yale last fall after the Yale University Press decided to pull his cartoon and other images of Muhammad from Jytte Klausen's book "The Cartoons that Shook the World," which discusses the violent response to the images. Branford Master Steven Smith invited Westergaard to campus for a Master's Tea in October. The Yale Police Department consulted with federal and state law enforcement officials about security measures for the event, University Vice President and Secretary Linda Lorimer said at the time.
The National Coalition Against Censorship and other organizations have decried Yale's decision not to reprint the images. The Yale Press said in an August statement that it excluded the cartoons from Klausen's book because of the possibility of a violent response.
Comments
None 2 years, 4 months ago
For those who are still denying that the fundamental message of the Danish cartoonist is absolutely on point, what else does it take?
None 2 years, 4 months ago
Does this vindicate the decision of the Yale administration to override the Yale Press's autonomy for safety concerns?
Hardly. While the PC police might feel better about themselves with such horrible news in hand, let us more than anything be grateful that Mr Westergaard survived. He refused to apologize for others' insanity (which the apologists call "religion") and stood his ground with tremendous nobility. Yale, on the other hand, backed down, acquiesced, compromised, whatever you wish to call it. It behaved like those European governments that champion not the right to speak, read, and think freely, but the right not to be offended by others' speech, words, and thoughts. Emboldened with the confidence that violence indeed can silence their enemies, these Islamists continue to get away with their violence, whether in Denmark, Detroit, or Yemen.
None 2 years, 4 months ago
Quite to the contrary. Islamism and Islamists are not synonyms of Islam and Muslims. But to your credit, I expected someone to jump to that conclusion despite a careful word choice.
None 2 years, 4 months ago
"these Islamists"? Do people call those who shoot up abortion clinics "these Christians"? Sounds a bit too generic. Is it just lazy thinking, or is it bias and stereotyping? PK
None 2 years, 4 months ago
I'm a bit dense on this one: could you make the distinction clearer for me please? THX. PK
None 2 years, 4 months ago
to dense...here's wikipedia to the rescue http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamism
None 2 years, 4 months ago
To Y'09: There isn't enough of consensus on a definition of "Islamist(s) in my humble opinion to use this word in any meaningful way---especially in a politically charged atmosphere. Wiki's alternative "activist Islam" seems more helpful here. (see below)
PK
FROM WIKIPEDIA: Many of those described as "Islamists" oppose the use of the term, and claim that their political beliefs and goals are simply an expression of Islamic religious belief. Similarly, some scholars favour the term "activist Islam" [4][5] or "political Islam" instead
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