Danish newspapers reprint controversial Prophet Muhammad cartoon

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Denmark's leading newspapers reprinted a cartoon Wednesday that depicts the Prophet Muhammad wearing a bomb-shaped turban. The papers said they wanted to show their firm commitment to freedom of speech after Tuesday's arrest in western Denmark of three people accused of plotting to kill the man who drew the cartoon. The drawing by Kurt Westergaard and 11 other cartoons depicting Muhammad enraged Muslims two years ago when they appeared in a range of Western newspapers. The Jyllands-Posten newspaper, which first published the 12 drawings on September 30, 2005, reprinted Westergaard's cartoon in its paper edition Wednesday. Several other major dailies, including Politiken and Berlingske Tidende, also reprinted the drawing, which shows Muhammad wearing a turban shaped like a bomb with a lit fuse. "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," said the Copenhagen-based Berlingske Tidende.