The publication of the Muhammad caricatures in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten in September 2005 caused a global controversy that erupted not only at the political and economic level, but also engulfed the media and had a significant impact on cultural tensions across international societies. This book aims to reflect on the so-called Danish cartoon controversy by focusing on the genre of caricature in order to consider how Muslims and elements of the Islamic tradition are represented in caricatures as the »other«. Monica Glavac commences with an historical overview of this artistic technique to understand how caricatures are characterized in Europe, where they originate from and how they developed. Historical examples are then studied to find out how Muslims and elements of the Islamic tradition were variously depicted. The historical perspective serves to embed the Muhammad cartoons and the resultant controversy in a broader cultural and historical context. Glavac thereby shows a possible way in which one can deal with a public phenomenon, such as the Danish cartoon controversy, from the perspective of the study of religion.

Auteur
Dr. des. Monika Glavac ist Forschungsassistentin am Zentrum für Religion Wirtschaft und Politik (ZRWP) an der Universität Zürich.