Danish newspapers this week reprinted the notorious cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad wearing a bomb for a turban, a day after three people were arrested for allegedly plotting to kill the artist who drew it, Kurt Westergaard, a 73-year-old illustrator with the daily Jyllands-Posten. Several other newspapers, including Politiken, Berlingske Tidende and the Ekstra Bladet tabloid, also decided to run the picture, in an act of defiance to intimidation. At least three newspapers in Sweden, Holland and Spain also reprinted the cartoon. "We are doing this to document what is at stake in this case, and to unambiguously back and support the freedom of speech that we as a newspaper will always defend," Copenhagen's Berlingske Tidende said. "Regardless of whether Jyllands-Posten at the time used freedom of speech unwisely and with damaging consequences, the paper deserves unconditional solidarity when it is threatened with terror."
Danish Muslim leaders said reprinting the caricature was the wrong way to protest, while the leader of the Islamic Faith Community—which led demonstrations against Jyllands-Posten in Copenhagen in 2006—said it was considering a demonstration outside parliament. (The Guardian [2], Feb. 13)
Way to prove to the world that Islam is a religion of peace, guys—kill those who say it isn't. Good thinking.
See our last post on the cartoon wars [3] and the struggle within Islam [4].
