ABSTRACT
The recent uproar over the publication of the Muhammad cartoons in Denmark has shed some light on the powerful reactions cartoons can trigger. In its September 30, 2005 issue, the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten published twelve editorial cartoons depicting the Islamic prophet Muhammad. The newspaper announced that the drawings, which included a depiction of Muhammad with a bomb inside or under his turban, contributed to the debate regarding criticism of Islam and self-censorship.1 The editors claimed that freedom of speech in Denmark was severely limited because political correctness had forced the Danish public sphere to surrender voluntarily to self-censorship. The fear of possibly offending minority feelings in Denmark, they claimed, had led to a limitation of the freedom of speech. By contrast, in many Muslim countries the caricatures symbolized a wellthought-out strategy to provoke Muslims and to highlight the prophecy of the “clash of civilizations.”2 Two weeks later, Danish Muslim organizations staged protests denouncing the cartoons as culturally insulting, blasphemous, and intended to humiliate a marginalized minority. Critics argued that the publication showed that European editors lack an understanding of the Muslim traditions around the world. The reprinting of the cartoons in over fi fty other countries deepened the controversy and unleashed a fi restorm of protests around the Muslim world. In some countries, the protests turned to violence, resulting in the death of more than one hundred people. The caricaturist received death threats and Danish authorities advised him to go into hiding. The Muhammad controversy, with the call to kill the cartoonist, reveals the emotional energy cartoons are able to bring about.
