Danish fury at apology for cartoon

A Danish newspaper apologised yesterday [Feb. 26th 2010] for offending Muslims by reprinting a cartoon of the Prophet Mohamed with a bomb-shaped turban, rekindling a heated debate about the limits of freedom of speech.
The Danish daily Politiken said its apology was part of a settlement with a Saudi lawyer representing eight Muslim groups in the Middle East and Australia. It drew strong criticism from the Danish media, which had stood united in rejecting calls to apologise for 12 cartoons that sparked fierce protests in the Muslim world four years ago. [...]
Politiken said it did not mean to offend Muslims in Denmark or elsewhere when it reprinted one of the most controversial cartoons, showing Mohamed wearing a turban shaped like a bomb with a lit fuse. Islamic law opposes any depiction of the prophet, even favourable, for fear it could lead to idolatry.
[...]. In a statement, Politiken said it "recognises and deplores" the fact that Muslims were offended by the caricature.
"We apologise to anyone who was offended by our decision to reprint the cartoon drawing," it said.
Tøger Seidenfaden, Politiken's editor-in-chief, said that the paper was apologising for the offence caused by the cartoon – not the decision to reprint it.
"We have the right to print Kurt Westergaard's drawings, we have the right to print the original 12 drawings, we have the right to print all the caricatures in the world," he told AP. "We apologise for the offence which the reprint has caused. That is what we apologise for." [...]
"Politiken's pathetic prostrating before a Saudi lawyer takes the first prize in stupidity," said Jørn Mikkelsen, editor-in-chief of Jyllands-Posten, which first printed the 12 cartoons. Mogens Blicher Bjerregård, the head of the Danish Union of Journalists, said Politiken was "kneeling before opponents of the freedom of press."

Source: The Independent
Reference: The Huffington Post

It was a setup

The sister of the Somali accused of attempting to kill Kurt Westergaard maintains that the Danish PET (security police) coerced her brother into attacking the cartoonist in his home: “The police made him do it”.

References:
Danish neocons stage phony terrorist plot

US charges two for 'Denmark plot'

Two Chicago men have been arrested on federal charges for their alleged roles in conspiracies to provide material support and/or to commit terrorist acts against overseas targets, including facilities and employees of a Danish newspaper that published cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed in 2005, federal law enforcement officials announced today. There was no imminent danger in the Chicago area, officials said, adding that the charges are unrelated to recent terror plot arrests in Boston, New York, Colorado, Texas and central Illinois.

Read more at U.S. Department of Justice

References:
Chicago Sun Times
BBC

Muslims Not 'Free of Being Mocked'

Muslims need to develop a sense of humor and an appreciation of satire — and they need to understand that they are not "free of being mocked or being offended," says the Danish caricaturist whose cartoon depicting the Prophet Muhammad incited rage throughout the Muslim world four years ago.

Kurt Westergaard told roughly a dozen listeners Wednesday night that he will "always" be ready to defend an individual's right to religious freedom.
"As the Danish tradition is for satire, we say you can speak freely, you can vote, you can speak out anytime, but there's only one thing you can't do — you can't be free of being mocked or being offended," Westergaard said. "That's the conditions in Denmark and so many countries."
Westergaard spoke at a private residence in midtown Manhattan in conjunction with the Hudson New York Briefing Council. It was just his second appearance in the U.S. since the 2005 publication of his notorious cartoon, which depicted Muhammad wearing a turban resembling a lit bomb. In Islam, any depiction of Muhammad is forbidden and considered blasphemy. [...]

Asked whether his depiction of the Prophet Muhammad originated from his personal politics or as part of his job as a cartoonist, Westergaard replied: "I am fighting for a just cause. And so you have a moral alibi, which is good, and then I have only worked according to our traditions in Denmark.
"And, of course, there's been a lot of support from the man which I meet in the street, the ethnic Dane who pats my shoulder and says, 'Well done.' Then there's also been the Muslims who have threatened me and cursed me … but I think the most reactions I have received, they are very positive."
Diana West, vice president of The International Free Press Society, which organized and promoted Westergaard's visit to the U.S., said, "It was a sheet of cartoons in a very small newspaper in a very small country that kicked off this now extremely significant event."
"And as a result, Westergaard has lived the last four years under death threats and in heightened security. It was a cartoon that he drew — this is his job."
She went on to criticize the decision by the Yale University Press not to publish Westergaard's image in a book released earlier this month, saying it reeked of "cowardice" and "appeasement."
"The question becomes whether we in the West submit to Islamic law regarding free speech and free expression," she said. "This is supposed to be a free country."

Read more at Fox News

Global Research about Denmark

All these articles are published in 2006 regarding the danish cartoons.

Cartoon Awakening: Toward a Positive Media Strategy
- by Ramzy Baroud - 2006-02-21

When Freedom of Expression Becomes a Weapon
- by Peter Matthews - 2006-02-07

The Muhammad caricatures: Freedom of suppression
- by Jan Oberg - 2006-02-07

Why ‘freedom of expression’ defence is questionable in the Muslim dispute with a Danish publication.
- by Stuart Pethick - 2006-02-02

An Interview with Kurt Westergaard

Kurt Westergaard is the cartoonist/illustrator who drew the most famous of the Mohammed cartoons. Because of death threats, he has moved around constantly under police protection. The German publication Der Spiegel has a very good profile of Westergaard. (in german) (in english).

Museum to house 'historic' Danish Muhammad cartoons

The Royal Library in Copenhagen has agreed to house controversial cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad which were published in a Danish newspaper and created a wave of global protest in which more than 50 people were killed.

The caricatures were published in Danish newspapers in September, 2005, outraging Muslims and causing fatal demonstrations in Afghanistan and Somalia. Danish and European embassies were attacked in the Middle and Far East.

The Museum of Danish Cartoon Art, part of the Royal Library founded in the 17th century, would not disclose whether the cartoons would be put on show.

“We hope we can secure all of the works to preserve them for the future. The caricatures have become a part of Danish history,” Jytte Kjaergaard, a Royal Library spokeswoman, told The Art Newspaper.

The caricatures will be stored as historic artefacts alongside documents such as some of the original manuscripts of Martin Luther.

Kasem Said Ahmad, a spokesman for the Danish Muslim Society, which lead the initial campaign against the cartoons, said the decision was provocative but that his group would attempt to ignore the decision to treat the cartoons as historic documents.

"We will not be holding any demonstrations as we got nothing from the Danish courts when we tried to sue the newspapers. We will ignore all provocations in future."

The library is holding advanced talks with several of the artists who produced the drawings, but an agreement has yet to be reached. Several of the cartoonists have said they will donate their controversial drawings to the museum free of charge, but the library may have to negotiate a fee for some of the works.

One of the caricatures has already been sold to a private buyer with the revenue being donated to charity.

“We have generally agreed that we want a museum to have the works, but everyone still has to take a final decision for himself,” Claus Seidel, one of the cartoonists and head of the Danish cartoonists’ association, said.

“Nobody wants to make a lot of money, some of us are even willing to donate the works,” he said.

One of the cartoons that incited rioting across the Muslim world depicted the Prophet’s head on the body of a dog; another showed him with a bomb concealed in his turban.

The pictures were first printed in the Danish newspaper Jyllyands-Posten before being reproduced in Austria, Norway, France, Germany, Italy and Spain.

Protests from governments across the Islamic world were followed by increasingly violent street protests which saw the Danish Embassy in Damascus burnt down.

Three men who protested at the Danish Embassy in London were sentenced to six-year jail terms for incitement to murder and another was found guilty of inciting race hatred.

Source: Times Online