diff --git a/src/gitolite.pm b/src/gitolite.pm
index 9d76f8c..d67cd13 100644
--- a/src/gitolite.pm
+++ b/src/gitolite.pm
@@ -48,8 +48,6 @@ use Data::Dumper;
 $Data::Dumper::Deepcopy = 1;
 $|++;
 
-use CGI::Util qw(escape);
-
 # ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 #       find the rc file, then pull the libraries
 # ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
@@ -80,6 +78,9 @@ BEGIN {
 use lib $ENV{GL_BINDIR};
 use gitolite_rc;
 
+# silently disable URI escaping if the module is not found
+$GITWEB_URI_ESCAPE &&= eval "use CGI::Util qw(escape); 1";
+
 # ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 #       the big data structures we care about
 # ----------------------------------------------------------------------------