Danish Artist Kurt Westergaard Nearly Killed Over 'Mohammed' Cartoon
(Getty Images | Inset by European Press Agency)Danish artist Kurt Westergaard says he and his five-year-old granddaughter had to hide in a panic room when a man with an ax and a knife broke into his home Friday. The artist's life has been threatened several times since a Danish newspaper published a cartoon he had drawn of the Muslim prophet Muhammad with a bomb for a turban.
Kurt Westergaard's depiction of Muhammad, titled 'Mohammed' as it originally appeared in Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten.Police said they responded to an alarm at Westergaard's home around 10 p.m. Friday and were attacked by the suspect. They shot the ax-wielding man, who lived and appeared in court Saturday while strapped to a stretcher to be charged with attempted assassination.
Meanwhile, Westergaard has been moved and his location is not being revealed.
Westergaard courted controversy in 2005 when he and 11 other Danish artists took up the task of drawing their personal depictions of the Muhammad. The cartoons, published in the Danish newspaper Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten, were a violation of the Muslim ban on depicting the prophet. The publication resulted in massive protests outside the newspaper's headquarters and while many Muslim leaders urged for peaceful protests, Danish institutions around the world were targeted by extremists.
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