YNET NEWS: German chancellor praises Dane who drew controversial Mohammad cartoon five years ago
German Chancellor Angela Merkel paid tribute to freedom of speech on Wednesday at a ceremony for a Dane whose cartoon of the Prophet Mohammad provoked Muslim protests that led to 50 deaths five years ago.
Merkel, who grew up in Communist East Germany, recalled her joy over the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
"Freedom for me personally is the happiest experience of my life," Merkel, 56, said at the conference on press freedom in Potsdam near Berlin. "Even 21 years after the Berlin Wall fell the force of freedom stirs me more than anything else."
She called press freedom a "precious commodity."
Honored at the event was Kurt Westergaard, who drew the most controversial of 12 cartoons of Mohammad which angered Muslims worldwide after appearing in a Danish paper in 2005. He thanked Merkel and the organizers for his award.
"We are living a good life despite all the threats," said Westergaard, 75. He added the publication of the cartoons had been out of respect for the Muslim community and that it was an act of inclusion, not exclusion.
Most Muslims consider any depiction of the founder of Islam to be offensive, and Westergaard's cartoon portrayed Mohammad with a turban resembling a bomb. At least 50 people died in riots by enraged Muslims in the Middle East, Africa and Asia. >>> Reuters | Thursday, September 09, 2010
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