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"A Major Form of Blasphemy”
September 9, 2009
by Marcia Inhorn

Marcia Inhorn is the William K. Lanman Jr. Professor of Anthropology and International Affairs and Chair of the Council on Middle East Studies at Yale.

I read Jytte Klausen’s book from cover to cover, and viewed the proposed illustrations. The book provides a descriptive account of the Danish cartoon controversy, particularly from the Danish point of view. Included is a detailed historical timeline of the publication and republication of the offending illustrations, noting that violent reprisals—and more than 200 total deaths—occurred not simply following the initial publication in Denmark, but following many of the times the cartoons were republished in newspapers around the globe. Klausen points out, correctly so, that most Muslims are not violent, and she blames the deadly protests largely on the Egyptian government, which, she argues, was seeking to cause violent agitation for its own political ends. Klausen, however, does not provide a cultural analysis of the cartoons themselves. Thus, showing the offending cartoons, which she describes in detailed prose, is superfluous to her political argument. It is worth noting also that the New York Times, the Washington Post, and every other regional newspaper save one in the United States were able to cover the controversy without printing the cartoons themselves.

As a cultural anthropologist and scholar of Egypt (with three books set in that country), I cannot agree with Klausen’s conclusion that the violent outcry against the cartoons was simply the product of political manipulations. Having lived and traveled in about half of the 22 Middle Eastern Muslim countries over the past 25 years, I have never once seen the Prophet Muhammad or any other historically important religious personage depicted (with the exception of Ayatollah Khomeini in Shia-dominant Iran). It is clear from the book that Klausen has spent very little time in the Middle East or in other Muslim countries. If she had, she would know that portraying the Prophet Muhammad, Ali (revered in Shia Islam), or other important religious personages is simply not done. Such portrayals violate a strongly held and religiously inspired cultural taboo.

Beyond the cultural taboo, portraying the Prophet Muhammad is considered blasphemy in the laws of many Muslim countries. For example, the penal code of Pakistan—a large, religiously mixed nation of both Sunni and Shia Muslims—defines blasphemy quite clearly. Portraying the Prophet Muhammad is considered a major form of blasphemy, and severe punishments (including death) are mandated. Such blasphemy laws are taken quite seriously in many other countries, both majority Muslim and non-Muslim. These laws and their underlying beliefs may seem “outdated” to Westerners. However, this is beside the point.

Those who understand Middle Eastern cultural sensibilities and who hope to promote cultural understanding and interfaith dialogue should certainly understand why publishing a book with many offensive contemporary and historical portrayals of the Prophet Muhammad and Ali would be a major mistake. It is bound to offend the world’s Muslims and, beyond that, to provoke a violent and potentially deadly reaction.

I shared all of these sentiments with Yale Press and the University this summer. It is no surprise that diplomatic and intelligence experts that Yale painstakingly consulted—both Muslim and non-Muslim—similarly warned about the serious consequences and likely violence of publishing this book with illustrations. I also know that major scholars of Islamic Studies in North America consulted by Yale agreed with this assessment.

In my view, Jytte Klausen is very lucky that Yale University Press has even agreed to publish her book. Unfortunately, she seems neither grateful, nor concerned about the potentially deadly consequences of the book’s publication. As an individual author, she has no responsibility to a larger constituency of students, scholars, or Americans in general as they live, work, and travel around the globe. However, Yale University Press and Yale University cannot afford to take a similarly cavalier position.  

Related

“Yale University Press and the Danish Cartoons” (9/9/09)

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