Denmark
Controversial Danish cartoonist escapes attackPosted Feb 13 2010
A 28-year-old Somali immigrant was charged Jan. 2 with the attempted murders of newspaper cartoonist Kurt Westergaard and a police officer. Westergaard, the Danish cartoonist who drew an infamous Mohammed comic in 2005 depicting the prophet with a bomb in place of a turban, escaped uninjured.
The assailant smashed his way into Westergaard's home with an axe. Westergaard and his granddaughter took shelter in a bathroom, The New York Times reported. The cartoonist has received multiple threats since the controversial images appeared in the daily Jyllands-Posten five years ago.
Reporters Without Borders stated in its report on the incident that “Free expression must be defended against representatives of minority viewpoints who use weapons in a bid to impose terror and silence.” Christopher Caldwell, a senior writer for The Weekly Standard, also discussed the implications of this attack for Denmark's free press. In a column for The Financial Times, he commented: “…the constancy of the threats against Mr. Westergaard points to a serious challenge to free societies, and shows that we may still underestimate the significance of the Danish cartoon crisis.”
Authorities continue to search for information that will lead to whether the immigrant, linked by Denmark’s intelligence service to both the East African branch of al-Qaeda and the Somali group al-Shabab, acted of his own accord.