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On September 3, 2009, PEN American Center sent the following letter to Yale University President Richard C. Levin and the Board of the Yale Corporation urging the university to review a decision to remove all images of the Prophet Muhammed from Jytte Klausen’s book The Cartoons That Shook the World, which is forthcoming from Yale University Press.
September 3, 2009
Richard C. Levin
President, Yale University
PO Box 208229
New Haven, CT 06520-8229
The Yale Corporation
c/o The Office of the Secretary
P.O. Box 208230
New Haven, CT 06520-8230
Dear President Levin and Members of the Yale Corporation,
We are writing on behalf of the 3,400 members of PEN American Center regarding the decision of Yale University Press to remove all images of the Prophet Muhammed from Jytte Klausen’s forthcoming book The Cartoons That Shook the World.
As an international organization that is dedicated to the protection of freedom of expression and the free exchange of literature and ideas around the world, PEN views the University Press’s decision with deep concern. We regard PEN and a university of Yale’s great standing as joined in high purpose, a purpose that includes promoting mutual respect and understanding across borders and cultures, and we feel the process and the product of the Press’s decision is out of character with Yale, its reputation, and its leadership position.
PEN has thought carefully about the questions that the Danish cartoons raise. Discussions among our Board and members here at PEN American Center and spirited debates with PEN colleagues around the world—including countries that saw violent demonstrations after the cartoons’ publication—inevitably reach one clear, consensus position: the introduction of violence or threats of violence into debates over art and ideas is to be rejected and condemned. PEN will always speak out on behalf of publishers who refuse to retreat from publications or publication plans out of fear or threats of violence. And we stand with those who publish works that specifically seek to promote respectful, reasoned debate and reflection on controversial issues and subjects.
Yale University Press has long been such a publisher, and The Cartoons That Shook the World deserves to be treated as your best traditions would dictate. We were disappointed and unsettled to learn that the press has decided to publish the book without the images that are the very subject of this scholarly work, and that it did so despite the fact the manuscript had been accepted for publication with the images and that the complete manuscript had been fully and repeatedly reviewed and approved according to the Press’s demanding standards. We are troubled both by the University’s subsequent assessment that publishing the images could provoke a violent response —which we believe discredits both Professor Klausen’s work and its readership—and by the decision to pull the images based on speculative threats.
In the spirit of our shared interest in preserving full academic freedom and freedom of expression, we strongly urge you to review this decision and encourage Yale University Press to publish The Cartoons That Shook the World in its complete, unexpurgated form.
Thank you for taking our thoughts into further deliberation and reconsideration of the decision.
Sincerely,
K. Anthony Appiah
President
Steven L. Isenberg
Executive Director
Larry Siems
Director, Freedom to Write and International Programs
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