"Muhammed Cartoonist" Attacked In Own Home: Danish Police Shoot Ax-Wielding Somali

Recall back in 2005 when a Danish newspaper, the Jyllands-Posten daily, had published 12 cartoons critical of The Prophet Muhammed.  The cartoons provoked rioting outside Danish embassies around the globe.  


Yesterday, one of the cartoonists, 75-year-old Kurt Westergaard, was attacked in his own home by an ax- and knife-wielding Somali man, shouting "revenge" and "blood." Westergaard and his five-year-old granddaughter, who was there for a sleep-over, locked themselves in a specially built saferoom where Westergaard was able to press an alarm and summon police.  

The police arrived a few minutes later and, as they tried to arrest the Somali man, the attacker swung an ax at police.  The man was shot by police in a leg and a hand.  He is presently hospitalized with non-lethal injuries.


Here are more details from the AP via FoxNews (emphasis added):

"The arrested man has, according to PET's information, close relations to the Somali terrorist group al-Shabab and Al Qaeda leaders in eastern Africa," Scharf said. PET is Denmark's intelligence agency.

Scharf said without elaborating that the man is suspected of having been involved in terror-related activities in east Africa. He had been under PET's surveillance but not in connection with Westergaard, he said

The man, who had a permit to stay in Denmark, was to be charged Saturday with attempted murder for trying to kill Westergaard and the police officer, Scharf said.

An umbrella organization for moderate Muslims in Denmark 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.

Westergaard remains a potential target for extremists nearly five years after he drew a caricature of the Prophet Muhammad wearing a bomb-shaped turban. The drawing was printed along with 11 others in Jyllands-Posten in 2005.

The drawings triggered an uproar a few months later when Danish and other Western embassies in several Muslim countries were torched by angry protesters who felt the cartoons had profoundly insulted Islam.

Islamic law generally opposes any depiction of the prophet, even favorable, for fear it could lead to idolatry.

Westergaard has received death threats and is the subject of an alleged assassination plot. The case "again confirms the terror threat that is directed at Denmark and against the cartoonist Kurt Westergaard in particular," Scharf said.

In October, terror charges were brought against two Chicago men whose initial plan called for attacks on Jyllands-Posten's offices. The plan was later changed to just killing the paper's former cultural editor and Westergaard.

In 2008, Danish police arrested two Tunisian men suspected of plotting to murder Westergaard. Neither suspect was prosecuted. One of them was deported and the other was released Monday after an immigration board rejected PET's efforts to expel him from Denmark.

Throughout the crisis, then-Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen distanced himself from the cartoons but resisted calls to apologize for them, citing freedom of speech and saying his government could not be held responsible for the actions of Denmark's press.

 
This is the cartoon that has placed Westergaard's life in jeopardy for that past 3 years.