It's official. Islamic law extends to New Haven, Connecticut where Yale University Press has chosen to submit to the dictates of sharia and not reproduce the 12 Danish Mohammed Cartoons in a new book about ... the 12 Danish Mohammed cartoons. Indeed, in keeping with sharia's dicates, the book, The Cartoons that Shook the World by Jytte Klausen, will include none of the originally planned images of Mohammed, including, as the New York Times reports, "a drawing for a children’s book; an Ottoman print; and a sketch by the 19th-century artist Gustave Doré of Muhammad being tormented in Hell, an episode from Dante’s “Inferno” that has been depicted by Botticelli, Blake, Rodin and Dalí."

How was this editorial gag put in place? The Times reports (via View from the Right):

Yale University and Yale University Press consulted two dozen authorities, including diplomats and experts on Islam and counterterrorism, and the recommendation was unanimous: The book, “The Cartoons That Shook the World,” should not include the 12 Danish drawings that originally appeared in September 2005.

Unaminous submission.

What’s more, they suggested that the Yale press also refrain from publishing any other illustrations of the prophet that were to be included [as mentioned above]....

John Donatich, the director of Yale University Press, said by telephone that the decision was difficult, but the recommendation to withdraw the images, including the historical ones of Muhammad, was “overwhelming and unanimous.” The cartoons are freely available on the Internet and can be accurately described in words, Mr. Donatich said, so reprinting them could be interpreted easily as gratuitous.

Behold how deeply the director of Yale University Press has taken into his dhimmi being the Islamic taboo on both imagery of Mohammed and criticism of Mohammed. Still, he vowed he was a big brave publisher who had never "blinked."

But, he said, “when it came between that and blood on my hands, there was no question.”

How does that saying go -- cartoons don't kill; Muslims do?

Yale University Press, naturally, refuses to name their "experts," or release their findings.

Rather than sign a joint editor’s note for the book and the removal of the images, Ms. Klausen has requested instead that a statement from her be included. “I agreed,” she said, “to the press’s decision to not print the cartoons and other hitherto uncontroversial illustrations featuring images of the Muslim prophet, with sadness. But I also never intended the book to become another demonstration for or against the cartoons, and hope the book can still serve its intended purpose without illustrations.”

You bet it will -- if, that is, the book's intended purpose is to add dear old Yale to the territories of Dar al-Islam.

Gustave Dore's illustration of Mohammed (middle) for Dante's Divine Comedy -- censored by Yale University Press. Image archive  here.