To the editor:

I am surprised that Kansas University has issued no statement denouncing the anti-Islamic cartoons that appeared recently in European newspapers.

Not that it is alone in withholding comment. Most American institutions, including our press, have steered clear of an issue which is not of our making. Having customarily been in the forefront of real or imagined affronts to Islam, Americans have decided to sit this one out. Even our government, however, has called the cartoons inappropriate, although permissible under a free press, and assured Muslims at home and abroad that we do not condone them. I imagine that Muslims in our community would appreciate similar assurance from KU.

I would not criticize the university for its silence had it pursued a policy of staying out of issues involving the critique of religion in the past. Only a few weeks ago, however, the KU administration fell head-over-heels to denounce and demote an employee who had the temerity to lampoon Christian fundamentalists in private correspondence. There was no affront to the deity involved in this incident, but offense was taken by some state legislators, and, of course, we can’t have that.

The university, as a supposedly secular institution, needs to decide whether to withhold its opinion on matters of blasphemy entirely or at least be consistent. Otherwise, it will appear that sensitivity to these issues is obtained only when the heat is on.

Bill Getz,

Lawrence