After the information as to Yale Press's self-censorship came out in the Washington Post, letters printed in the hard copy of the newspaper were overwhelmingly in support of Yale's decision.
Now comes this commentary in the Saturday, August 29, 2009 edition of the Washington Post:
Yale's Misguided RetreatRead the entire essay HERE. As you might expect, the essay has generated pages and pages of comments.
In deciding to omit the images from a book it is publishing about the controversy sparked by Danish cartoons of the prophet Muhammad, Yale University Press has handed a victory to extremists. Both Yale and the extremists distorting this issue should be ashamed. I say this as a Muslim who supported the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten's right to publish the cartoons of the prophet Muhammad in late 2005 and as someone who also understands the offense taken at those cartoons by many Muslims, including my mother. After a while, she and I agreed to stop talking about them because the subject always made us argue.
[...]
Speaking at a conference that Khader hosted at the Danish parliament a year after the cartoons' publication, I warned of two right wings -- a non-Muslim one that hijacked the issue to fuel racism against immigrants in Denmark, and a Muslim one that hijacked the issue to silence Muslims and fuel anti-Western rhetoric.
Sadly, both groups are celebrating Yale's decision because it has proven them "right."
[...]
The cowardice shown by Yale Press recognizes none of the nuance that filled my conversations in Copenhagen nor discussions I had with Muslims in Qatar and Egypt during the controversy. Many told me they were dismayed at the double standards that stoked rage at these Danish cartoons yet did not question silence at anti-Semitic and racist cartoons in the region's media.
Does Yale realize that it has proven what Flemming Rose said was his original intent in commissioning the cartoons -- that artists were self-censoring out of fear of Muslim radicals?
Yale has sided with the various Muslim dictators and radical groups...
About the author of the essay:
Mona Eltahawy, an Egyptian-born commentator based in New York, writes and lectures on Arab and Muslim issues. She is a columnist for the Danish newspaper Politiken. Her e-mail address is info@monaeltahawy.com.So, is Mona Eltahaway one of those hoped-for moderate Muslims? What say you, fellow infidels?
A topic of discussion today on the BBC. http://worldhaveyoursay.wordpress.com/2009/08/31/danish-cartoons-did-the-world-learn-nothing-at-all/#more-8334
ReplyDeleteMona Eltahawhy has been writing reasoned, moderate articles for a while now. It is always a pleasure to read her.
ReplyDeleteI think the sentence in her article, "After a while, [my mother] and I agreed to stop talking about [the Danish cartoons] because the subject always made us argue" (Mona supported publishing them, her mother did not) speaks volumes. If you are raised in a home, whatever the religion practiced there, where differences of opinion is allowed and family members can agree to disagree, you will be open to the freedoms America has to offer. If you are raised in a home where you are not allowed any opinion but the accepted orthodoxy, it makes integration into our culture that much harder. Just my two cents!