Even though riots broke out around the world after satirical images of the Prophet Muhammad were published in Denmark ten years ago, one expert says analysts were surprised that cartoons could still provoke a terrorist attack like the Paris massacre.
Jytte Klausen, author of the book Cartoons That Shook The World, said that many people believed that the time for extreme, violent reactions to controversial cartoons had passed. "I think many of us had expected that things had moved on," she said. "I think we forgot, I certainly forgot, that Al-Qaeda never gives up. They have a template for an attack. And if it fails the first time, fails the second time, they always come back and do it again.
Klausen, a political science professor at Brandeis University, is the author of a book published in 2009 by Yale University Press. The book unravels events that led to riots in 2006 that killed some 200 people, following the publication of a cartoon depicting the Prophet Muhammad wearing a lit bomb in his turban.
Klausen's book also sparked its own controversy. A few weeks before publication, Yale University which owns the Yale Press, eliminated all images of Muhammad. Security experts and counterterrorism officials had warned there could be violence if the cartoons were reprinted. Klausen disagreed with the action.
"I still think it was an extremely ill-advised decision," said Klausen. She argues that terrorist attacks like the Paris massacre are rare, planned and purposeful.
If the world gives in to these threats, Klausen said, it leaves single individuals with the burden. "If we allow an organization like Charlie Hebdo in Paris to be the single banner for our core values, which they have been, we leave them vulnerable and exposed."
Klausen is calling for better cooperation between governments to provide security for writers, editors, and artists who she says, stand up for freedom.
