Danish Police Foil Murder Plot Against Danish Cartoonist of Muhammed Cartoons

The target was Kurt Westergaard, 73, a staff cartoonist on Jyllands-Posten, the Danish newspaper that first published the controversial Muhammed cartoons. Westergaard's drawings depicted Mohamed with a bomb-shaped turban and a burning fuse.

The Danish Police foiled a murder plot against one of the cartoonists, Kurt Westergaard, that caused controversy as well as brought about angry protests from Muslims worldwide in 2006 by drawing cartoons of the Mohammed. Mr. Westergaard is the cartoonist who created the controversial cartoon of the Muslim prophet Muhammad wearing a bomb as a turban, found here and all 12 cartoons can be found here. After a "lengthy surveillance", PET,Denmark's intelligence agency, arrested three men, one a Dane of Moroccan origin and two Tunisian nationals, the Dane is expected to be released and the two Tunisian nationals have been deemed a national security threat and are being expelled from the country. Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen issued a statement saying he was "deeply concerned by these suspicions of a very serious crime, which unfortunately demonstrates that there are extremist groups in Denmark that do not recognize or respect the basic principles of society."

"In Denmark, we are free not only to think and speak as we please, but also to draw what we want. And the government will protect this freedom of expression." The suspects planned to murder Mr. Westergaard in his home, according to Jyllands-Posten . Westergaard told TV2 in a telephone interview that he was first informed of the plot by PET in November and has since moved several times, including to addresses outside Denmark and that he "feared for his life" The head of the Islamic Community, the biggest Muslim association in the country, Kassem Ahmad, has also spoken out against this plot, "There is freedom of expression in Denmark... and it doesn't help our cause when some people want to seek out their own form of justice." His following words belie the concern in his statement though when he continued on to say, "We want a decent tone between Muslims and Danes. But we maintain our view that the cartoons were provocative." Further statements by the Prime Minister are reported in Bloomberg:

The government takes very seriously all attacks on freedom of speech,'' Rasmussen added. ``In Denmark, one not only has the freedom to think and speak, but also to draw what one chooses.''

The 12 cartoons were first published in the online publication, Jyllands-Posten, and also published the cartoons in its print edition in September 2005. They were considered offensive by many Muslim and sparked riots across the Muslim world in January and February 2006. Carsten Juste, editor-in-chief of Jyllands-Posten, said on the website of the publication that it was "shameful that a man who is doing his job well and in accordance with Danish law and press ethics is rewarded with demonisation and concrete murder threats." This plot is two plus years after the initial release of the controversial cartoons, which shows considerable planning and premeditation and being that the Danish Authorities adopted special anti-terrorism laws in 2002 after the attack in the US on September 11, 2001, the Danes are able to expel the Tunisians without any judicial process by simply deeming them a threat to national security. Needless to say there is complaint from the leftist Unity List party, from spokesman Per Clausen who states that it is "very worrying that people who have lived several years in Denmark can be expelled without judgment."