Events Detail

The Center for Religious Freedom

held a discussion on

Blasphemy and Inquiry:
"The Cartoons That Shook the World"

With

Dr. Jytte Klausen

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

12:30 – 2:00 PM

                Baran, Klausen, and Shea

In 2005-2006, global unrest erupted over the publication of twelve cartoons depicting Islam's Prophet Muhammad in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten. Jytte Klausen discussed her book on this Danish cartoon crisis, The Cartoons that Shook the World, and reflect on the decision by her publisher, Yale University Press, to remove the illustrations from the book. Experts consulted by Yale University forecast that violence would result if the cartoons and other depictions of Muhammad were reproduced in the book. Were they right? And if a risk existed, should scholars censor their work? Nina Shea, Director of the Center for Religious Freedom and Hudson Senior Fellow, introduced the event.

Jytte Klausen is Professor of Comparative Politics at Brandeis University and Affiliate of the Center for European Studies at Harvard University. She is the author of The Challenge of Islam: Politics and Religion in Western Europe (Oxford University Press, 2005). Klausen recently received the Carnegie Scholars Award (2007-08) for her work on Muslims in Europe.

Zeyno Baran, Senior Fellow and Director of Hudson Institute's Center for Eurasian Policy, commented and moderated the discussion.

This lecture is part of the Center for Religious Freedom's fall series on "Lifting the Theocratic Iron Curtain: Examining the Application of Muslim Blasphemy and Apostasy Rules in the Contemporary World"

For more information please contact Beth Kerley at bkerley@hudson.org.

Betsy and Walter Stern Conference Center

Hudson Institute

1015 15^th Street, NW

Sixth Floor

Washington, D.C. 20005