Kurt Westergaard's famous drawing of Muhammad with a bomb for a turban won't grace the pages of the Yale University Press's new book when it comes out next week. But Westergaard himself will put in a campus appearance at Yale's Branford College.
Westergaard is one of the Danish cartoonists whose work, critical of Islam, sparked riots worldwide in 2005 — the subject of Jytte Klausen's book The Cartoons That Shook the World. That book in turn sparked outrage last month, when the New York Times reported that the Yale University Press, citing fears of renewed violence, had decided to publish a book about cartoons without the cartoons.
The book is scheduled for release on Monday. Three days later, on October 1, Westergaard will speak in the Branford College Common Room, along with Lars Hedegaard, founder of the Danish Free Press Society.
Jamie Kirchick '06, a member of the Yale Committee for a Free Press — formed by alumni to protest what they see as YUP's and the university's caving in to Islamist pressure — first mentioned Westergaard's planned visit to campus in the New York Daily News last week. Since then, the news has popped up on a few blogs, notably the National Review's The Corner.
Branford College Master Steven Smith, a political scientist, couldn't be reached on Wednesday for comment about the event.