The aftershocks continued. Just two examples: Yale University Press decided to cut every image depicting Mohammad from a new scholarly book analyzing the cartoon crisis. Kurt Westergaard, the Danish cartoonist who depicted Mohammad with a bomb in his turban, was driven into hiding, escaping two attempts on his life. What is the situation like today? That was one of the questions I put to Flemming Rose, the editor who commissioned and published the cartoons. He has written a perceptive and riveting new book about the crisis, the reaction to it, and the future of free speech. The book’s title hints at the direction of the current trend: The Tyranny of Silence. Our conversation ranged widely. A few of the issues we touched on: what incidents prompted the commissioning of the cartoons, how self-censorship operated under the Soviet regime and the parallels to today, what lies behind the push to outlaw “defamation of religion,” and why the invalid term “Islamophobia” is so destructive. Elan Journo
Posted on: Wed, 31 Dec 2014 12:23:22 +0000
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