Cartoons and RubbereFigures political animations by Peter Nicholson of The Australian newspaper
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Cartoons and RubbereFigures political animations by Peter Nicholson of The Australian newspaper |
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Jan 3, 2010: Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard survives assassination attemptJUST 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 Mohammed 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 at the weekend as the 75-year-old cartoonist was looking after Stephanie, his five-year-old granddaughter. Westergaard, whose little ink drawing of Mohammed 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, 200km northwest of Copenhagen - 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 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. "I feared for my grandchild," he told Jyllands-Posten, the newspaper that had commissioned the cartoon. "But she did great. I knew that he wouldn't do anything to her." He went on: "It was close, really close. But we did it." The attacker, who was also carrying a knife, shouted, "I'll be back", before going outside to confront police. He smashed a police car window with the axe and was shot in the hand and a knee when he threw the axe at an officer. He appeared in court on a stretcher yesterday to be charged with the attempted murder of Westergaard and the policeman, and was ordered to be held for four weeks on the charges. His name cannot be released because of a court order. His wounds were described as serious but not life-threatening. Jakob Scharf, head of Danish intelligence, said yesterday the assailant had close relations to al-Shabab, a Somali terror group, as well as to al-Qa'ida leaders in eastern Africa. He had been under surveillance by intelligence, although not in connection with any plot against Westergaard. The attack, Mr Scharf said, "confirms the terror threat directed at Denmark and against Westergaard in particular". The Somali man had won an asylum case and received a residency permit to stay in Denmark, Mr Scharf said. Angry protesters in Muslim countries in 2006 burnt embassies and stormed several European buildings in a wave of rioting and flag-burning in which more than 100 people were killed. The reaction came after a dozen "Mohammad cartoons", including the famous one by Westergaard, were published in several newspapers. Their publication in 2005 came after Jyllands-Posten had asked Danish cartoonists to draw Mohammad as a challenge to a perceived self-censorship. Westergaard and 11 other artists did so. Westergaard's cartoon is viewed as the most provocative, and he is the only one of the 12 cartoonists to live under around-the-clock protection. Authorities declined comment yesterday on whether security for other cartoonists had been tightened. The drawings had been intended to contribute to the debate about criticism of Islam and self-censorship. This followed the brutal murder in The Netherlands the previous year of Theo van Gogh, the filmmaker, by a fanatic who resented his depiction of Islam and slit his throat on a street. Muslims called the cartoons an insult to their religion and, as well as promoting a boycott of Danish goods, some Islamic leaders issued death threats against Westergaard and his publishers. Islamic law generally opposes any depiction of the prophet, even favourable, for fear it could lead to idolatry. An affable figure with a wry sense of humour, Westergaard has been the intended victim of at least two plots foiled by police. In one, two Tunisians planned to decapitate him in his home. Two other would-be attackers from Chicago were charged in October with planning to kill Westergaard and Flemming Rose, the cultural editor of Jyllands-Posten, who has called the bomb cartoon "a great cultural icon of the 21st century". Police failed to substantiate the charges and neither suspect was prosecuted. One was deported and the other was released last Monday after an immigration board rejected Danish intelligence's efforts to expel him from Denmark. The threats, reminiscent of the fatwa against Salman Rushdie, whose 1988 novel, The Satanic Verses, was considered blasphemous, have made life miserable for Westergaard and his wife, a retired nursery school teacher. Like Rushdie, they have been obliged to spend long periods in various safe houses whenever the threat against them is considered to be high. Efforts to protect the artist were immediately stepped up, as he was moved to an undisclosed location. The cartoonist's telephone went unanswered yesterday: he is expected, for a while at least, to go to ground under police protection. He puts a brave face on his plight. "At my age, you are not so much afraid any more," he said last year. He has no regrets about the cartoon, whose original is locked in a bank vault, defending Denmark's tradition of democracy and freedom of speech. He seems resigned to a life on the run. "This will go on for the rest of my life. There is no way out," he said. Throughout the crisis three years ago, then prime minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen distanced himself from the cartoons but resisted calls to apologise for them, citing freedom of speech and saying his government could not be held responsible for the actions of Denmark's press. At the weekend, Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen called the attack "despicable". "This is not only an attack on Kurt Westergaard but also an attack on our open society and our democracy," he said in a statement. An umbrella organisation for moderate Muslims in Denmark also condemned the attack. "The Danish Muslim Union strongly distances itself from the attack and any kind of extremism that leads to such acts," the group said in a statement. In Somalia, Sheik Ali Mohamud Rage, a spokesman for Somali group al-Shabab, denied the man was member of the group, but supported his alleged attack. "We welcome the brave action he did," he said. "It was a good and brave step taken by that Somali man against the criminal cartoonist." He described Westergaard as "the devil who abused our Prophet Mohammed" and called on "all Somalis in Denmark and around the world to target him and the people like him, too". The Sunday Times, AP The complete set of the famous Danish cartoons from Jyllands Posten about Mohammed can be found on this link: http://www.comicsreporter.com/index.php/briefings/commentary/4166/ Media
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