MAGHREBIANS PLOT TO KILL 73 YEAR OLD

Monday, September 1, 2008


February 12, 2008

“In Denmark, we have freedom not only to think and talk, but also to draw.” Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen

February 12, 2008- The Danish Security and Intelligence Service (PET) announced several arrests of Muslims planning the murder of Kurt Westergaard. A Moroccan, protected from being deported by his Danish citizenship, and two Tunisians were arrested in Denmark over a plot to murder one of the 12 cartoonists whose drawings of Mohammad caused worldwide turmoil in 2006.

The Moroccan (40) is expected to be released pending further investigation, while the Tunisians will remain detained. Deportation proceedings are brought against them. According to Jyllands-Posten, the newspaper that originally published the cartoons in September 2005, the suspects are accused of planning to kill 73-year-old Kurt Westergaard.

He is the one who drew the cartoon that caused the most controversy, depicting the founder of Islam with a bomb in his turban (the cartoon is republished on the newspaper’s website). The cartoons were later reprinted by more than 50 newspapers, triggering a wave of bloody protests in parts of the Muslim world.

Kurt Westergaard says on Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten: “Of course I fear for my life after the Danish Security and Intelligence Service informed me of the concrete plans of certain people to kill me. However, I have turned fear into anger and indignation. It has made me angry that a perfectly normal everyday activity which I used to do by the thousand was abused to set off such madness. I have attended to my work and I still do. I could not possibly know for how long I have to live under police protection; I think, however, that the impact of the insane response to my cartoon will last for the rest of my life. It is sad indeed, but it has become a fact of my life. “


Image: Wikipedia
The Prophet Mohammad, 17th century Ottoman copy of an early 14th century (Ilkhanate period) manuscript of Northwestern Iran or northern Iraq (the "Edinburgh codex"). Illustration of Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī's al-Âthâr al-bâqiyah ( الآثار الباقيةة ; "The Remaining Signs of Past Centuries")

Posted by Madi Lussier at 3:39 PM  

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