The University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign's independent student newspaper suspended its editor in chief and opinions editor Tuesday after publishing controversial cartoons last week.

The cartoons, caricaturizing the Prophet Muhammad, have sparked riots in the Middle East after the cartoons' original publication in a Danish newspaper.

While the cartoons have spurred negative responses from both community members and Muslim students at UI-UC, the suspension was not a result of the cartoons alone.

Rather, Illini editorial section members argued Editor in Chief Acton Gorton and Opinions Editor Chuck Prochaska had not properly consulted them about the cartoon.

"Acton and Chuck published these on their own, even though they didn't ask anyone," said Managing Editor and now-Interim Editor in Chief Shira Weissman. "There is definitely a way to do this … this was not the way."

On Monday, Illini staff members printed a formal apology with a dissenting opinion by Gorton and Prochaska.

"This decision was made by two people behind the backs of those who are being significantly affected by its fallout," the apology read.

Weissman said the cartoon has hurt the paper's relationship with the Muslim community, adding, "It's not something we want to do as a paper, we have to go to school and hear about this all day."

The piece consisted of an editorial written by Gorton and the original Danish cartoons.

"All across the nation, editors are gripped in fear of printing," Acton said in the editorial. "For fear of reaction."

But Weissman said the decision to print the cartoon and editorial hurt the newsroom.

"In order to run a newsroom, you have to have your staff's respect," Weissman said. "How can you provide a dialogue in the community when you can't provide it in your own newsroom?"

However, both Gorton and Prochaska insisted their motives were not for publicity or to offend the Muslim community.

"We don't feel that words can do these cartoons justice," Prochaska said. "People need to see the actual content to decide for themselves and see the root cause of what's happening."

According to Prochaska, he discussed the piece with Gorton Feb. 7 and met again with Gorton Feb. 8. The pair discussed the cartoons' printing, possible backlash and public relations for an hour in the afternoon.

Gorton and Prochaska argued there were other editors in the newsroom that did not object when the paper was sent to be printed.

According to Kiyoshi Martinez, night editor for the paper, both Gorton and Prochaska alerted him to the cartoon and editorial publication one day prior to printing.

"I was told [that] very few people knew about it. I was told to keep it quiet and ensure that it got printed, and if complications arose, to contact them immediately," Martinez said on his weblog, The Next Frontier.

Martinez said he regretted the staff, especially staff editors, was not made aware of all the content that would be in the newspaper, "especially something as controversial as [the] cartoons."

In a blog post, Martinez suggested the cartoon should have an intellectual and informative approach, feature Point/Counter-point columns from staff members, and historical, social, and religious context of why people find the cartoons offensive.

"As you can see, parts of my advice were taken, parts were ignored," Martinez wrote. "I never questioned the decision to print the cartoons, as I believed it was part of The Daily Illini's duty to do so."

In the coming weeks, the newspaper will conduct a formal investigation into Prochaska and Gorton's actions. However, Gorton argues the high-ranking members of the Illini conducting the investigation have turned their backs on the two.