Do you dare to read this book?
The Danish cartoons and other images of Muhammad were banned by Yale University Press from Jytte Klausen's The Cartoons that Shook the World — for fear that someone, somewhere, might respond violently to their publication.
The editors of Muhammad: The "Banned" Images and the signatories who subscribe to the Statement of Principle argue that recent threats of violence against the use of particular words and images are creating a climate that hampers academic discourse, grants legitimacy to censorship, and eventually corrupts one of the most fundamental values of liberal democracy.
If you care about free speech and scholarly discourse...
Do you dare not to read this book?
Muhammad: The "Banned" Images includes:
- Editor's Introduction by Gary Hull, on the basic choice between free speech and force, and the ethical issues involved in suppressing free scholarly discourse for the sake of multiculturalism
- Statement of Principle on free speech and scholarly discourse
- Survey of images of Muhammad from Western and Muslim sources, ranging over 900 years, with 31 images reproduced in full color and a Preface setting the images in historical context
- From the Introduction by Dr. Hull:
Muhammad: The "Banned" Images is a "picture book" — or errata to the bowdlerized version of Klausen's book as published by Yale University Press. It is of course more than that. It is a statement of defiance against censors, terror-mongers, and their Western appeasers. It is a rallying cry for free speech, freedom of the press, and for open scholarship unfettered by fear.
The cover shows a scene from Mahomet, ou le Fanatisme, a 1742 play in which Voltaire used Muhammad symbolically to attack those who use revealed religion to gain power.
New Interview with Dr. Hull
Open Position with Voltaire Press: Blogger/Writer
