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Police foil plot to kill Mohammed illustrator

By The Copenhagen Post

Published 12.02.08   00:00 

Illustrators who contributed to the newspaper series depicting the prophet Mohammed continue to fear for their lives

Police in the Århus-area arrested five people on Tuesday morning who they suspect of planning to murder Kurt Westergaard, one of the illustrators who contributed to Jyllands-Posten newspaper's series depicting the prophet Mohammed.

The suspects, who reportedly had a Muslim background, include three Danish citizens.

While police withheld statements in the wake of the arrests, early reports indicated the domestic intelligence service PET had had the suspects under surveillance operation for several months.

Westergaard's drawing, in which a lit bomb grows out of a turban worn by the prophet Mohammed was considered one of the most controversial of the twelve drawings. Upon hearing of the arrests, Westergaard admitted that having to live under continual police protection was unwelcome.

'But I've turned the fear into anger and bitterness,' he said. 'I'm bitter that a normal everyday action which I've done thousands of times should be misused to unleash such insanity.'

The arrests suggest that the repercussions of the Jyllands-Posten drawings continue to be felt.

After the drawings were printed in September 2005, Muslim protestors took to the streets claiming that the drawings were an attack on their religion, which forbids depicting the prophet Mohammed.

Several Danish embassies were torched and boycotts in the Middle East left Danish companies reeling in what was considered Denmark's most significant foreign relations crisis since the Second World War.

Although tensions between Denmark and the Muslim world eventually dissipated, the significance of the newspaper's campaign continues to be debated. Some detractors, such as Uffe Ellemann-Jensen, a former foreign minister, claim the drawings were a deliberate attempt to provoke Muslim sensitivities.

Jyllands-Posten newspaper meanwhile insists the drawings were a valid exercise of freedom of speech.

Carsten Juste, Jyllands-Posten's editor-in-chief, condemned the suspected attackers and offered support to Westergaard.

'It's a disgrace that a man who does his job in the framework of Danish law, Danish journalistic ethics and Danish newspaper traditions should have to confront being demonised and murder threats.'