The cowards at Yale University Press appear none too pleased by the blow back they’ve gotten over their decision to censor a book about the riots that followed the printing by a Danish newspaper in 2005 of cartoons showing the Muslim prophet Mohammad.

The author of the book, “The Cartoons That Shook the World,” quite naturally wanted to include reprints of those cartoons — plus other historical renderings of the prophet.

Nothing doing, said Yale — citing fears of the same sort of Islamist violence that met the cartoons’ original publication.

Of course, that decision created an uproar of its own — from alumni, academics and others appalled by the university’s spinelessness.

The head of the American Association of University Professors recently noted that the censorship says, in effect, “We do not negotiate with terrorists. We just accede to their anticipated demands.”

Well put. But such protests aren’t likely to sway John Donatich, the Yale Press’ director, who apparently responds only to threats of violence. He told the Associated Press yesterday that critics are merely “grandstanding” — asserting that the university wasn’t censoring the book because the cartoons are available elsewhere.

“I would never have agreed to censor original content,” he huffed, hollowly.

Yale should drop the act: Its cowardice is too obvious for the university to spin away the damage.