Merkel Honors Mohammad Cartoonist
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

Verbunden hier und hier

Fox News: Bill O'Reilly South Park Muhammad Death Threats


South Park Muhammad Cartoon Sparks Jihadi Death Threats - Ayaan Hirsi Ali


South Park's 200th, Litigious Celebs and Mohammed: Matt Stone and Trey Parker

America's Disappointing Reaction to South Park Censorship
THE TELEGRAPH: America's failure to rise up against the intimidation of cartoonist Molly Norris and South Park animators is a sad sign, says Alex Spillius.

South Park featured an episode where all the founders of the major world religions including Mohammed appeared as a group of crime fighters called the Super Best Friends. Cartoon: The Telegraph
The trouble with terror is that it can be terrifying. Just ask Molly Norris, a cartoonist from Seattle.

As far as we know, she hasn't been explicitly threatened by Islamic extremists, but evidently she feared she might be.

Her error was to post on her website an illustration with many different household objects with speech bubbles all claiming to be the likeness of Mohammed, including a tea cup, a domino and a box of pasta. It was part of a mock campaign to dedicate May 20 as "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day!"

Ms Norris pinged her cartoon to a few bloggers and talked to local radio, saying she [sic] it was "a cartoonist's job to be non-PC."

Quite reasonably, the radio man asked her "are you sure you want to do this?"

Bold as you like, she replied: "Yeah, I want to water down the targets ..."

Ms Norris had launched her pretend promotion in response to the treatment by Comedy Central of Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the creators of South Park, the satirical animated show.

Its 200th anniversary episode featured a parade of celebrities and religious figures it had parodied over the years. Aware of the offence that depicting Mohammed could cause to Muslims, the show's characters debated how to represent the prophet, eventually deciding to hide him in a bear costume.

That prompted a New York-based website, RevolutionMuslim.com, to warn Parker and Stone that "what they are doing is stupid and they will probably wind up like Theo Van Gogh". >>> Alex Spillius in Washington | Saturday, May 01, 2010

Panic Room Saved Artist Kurt Westergaard from Islamist Assassin
THE SUNDAY TIMES: Just when Denmark thought the worst was over, Islamic fury has come back to haunt it with an assassination attempt on the artist whose cartoon of the prophet Muhammad as a suicide bomber had an explosive impact four years ago on the Muslim world.

An axe-wielding Somali extremist broke into the home of Kurt Westergaard on Friday night as the 75-year-old cartoonist was looking after Stephanie, his five-year-old granddaughter.

Westergaard, whose little ink drawing of Muhammad with a bomb in his turban sparked riots throughout the Middle East in 2006, has received numerous death threats. He pressed an alarm button to summon police when the attacker entered the house in Aarhus, Denmark’s second city, by breaking a window.

He did not have time to collect the child from the living room before locking himself into a “panic room”, a specially fortified bathroom. He said the assailant had shouted “swear words, really crude words” and shrieked about “blood” and “revenge”, as he smashed the axe in vain against the bathroom door. >>> Matthew Campbell | Sunday, January 03, 2010

Prophet Muhammad Cartoon Goes on Sale in Denmark
ASSOCIATED PRESS: COPENHAGEN — A Danish press freedom group said Wednesday it is selling copies of a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad that caused outrage across the Muslim World.

Some 1,000 printed reproductions of a drawing depicting the prophet wearing a bomb-shaped turban are being sold for 1,400 kroner ($250) each, said Lars Hedegaard, chairman of the Danish Free Press Society.

"All we are doing is starting a debate," Hedegaard said. "We are using our freedom of speech." >>> By Jan M. Olsen | Wednesday, April 8, 2009

The most famous cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad, created by Kurt Westergaard.

Murder Plot Against Danish Cartoonist
Police arrested several “people with a Muslim background” early Tuesday morning, suspected of conspiring to kill the Danish cartoonist, Kurt Westergaard
JYLLANDS-POSTEN: Early Tuesday morning, Danish police arrested several people with a Muslim background suspected of conspiring to kill Kurt Westergaard, a Danish cartoonist with Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten.

A formal statement by the police setting out details of the action is expected within the next few hours.

Kurt Westergaard is one of the 12 cartoonists who on 30 September 2005 published cartoons of Muslim prophet Mohammed.
The group arrested includes Danish as well as foreign citizens. The Danish Security and Intelligence Service have followed the group for months.

The cartoons and an explanatory article led, as is well known, to the so-called Mohammed crisis involving violent demonstrations, the boycott of Danish goods and the burning of Danish embassies.

Kurt Westergaard’s cartoon depicting the prophet wearing a bomb turban with a lit fuse attracted particular attention. What the cartoonist wanted to say with his cartoon was that many people exploit the prophet to legitimize terror. However, the cartoon was widely seen as a depiction of the prophet as a terrorist. Murder plot against Danish cartoonist >>>

THE TELEGRAPH:
Five arrested in Danish cartoon murder plot By Julian Isherwood, Scandinavia Correspondent

BBC:
Danish cartoons 'plotters' held

DAILY MAIL:
Islamic terror suspects seized over plot to murder 'Mohammad' cartoonist

JYLLANDS-POSTEN:

Mordkomplott gegen dänischen Karikaturisten

Complot d'assassinat contre un caricaturiste danois

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)