A recent Gallup poll for the World Economic Forum showed a majority of Europeans believed relations between the West and the Muslim world were worsening.
"More and more Europeans feel that Islam is a threat to their way of life," Newton said.
PROPHET ARTOON FREE
It has made me angry that a perfectly normal everyday activity which I used to do by the thousand was abused to set off such madness."ĬNN's Paula Newton said the arrests reinforced growing fears in Europe that radical Islam was trying to suppress free speech. "However, I have turned fear into anger and indignation. "Of course I fear for my life after the Danish Security and Intelligence Service informed me of the concrete plans of certain people to kill me," Westergaard said in a statement posted on the newspaper's Web site. However, many in the Muslim world interpreted the drawing as depicting their prophet as a terrorist. Westergaard has previously said that he wanted his cartoon to say that some people exploited the prophet to legitimize terror. "Thus, this morning's operation must first and foremost be seen as a preventive measure where the aim has been to stop a crime from being committed." "Not wanting to take any undue risks has decided to intervene at a very early stage in order to interrupt the planning and the actual assassination," the statement by Jakob Scharf, the agency's director general, said. Watch how threats have targeted cartoonists » The paper identified the cartoonist as Kurt Westergaard. The target of the plot, the intelligence service said, was the cartoonist for the Danish newspaper Morgenavisen Jullands-Posten, which first published the controversial drawings in September 2005. Police have not yet released the names of the three. The Danish citizen is charged with a terrorism offense, the intelligence service said, and the Tunisians will be deported. The Danish Security and Intelligence Service Tuesday said police arrested a 40-year-old Dane of Moroccan origin and two Tunisians in the Aarhus area of western Denmark following lengthy surveillance. We are trying to calm down people, but let's see what happens. "No blood was ever shed in Denmark because of this, and no blood will be shed. Imam Mostafa Chendid, chief of the Islamic Faith Community, told AP his group was discussing whether to hold a demonstration before parliament, adding: "We are so unhappy about the cartoon being reprinted." Muslim leaders in Denmark Wednesday attacked the republication of the cartoon, as well as the alleged murder plot, while calling for calm. The Danish Foreign Ministry has said it is keeping a watch on the situation at its embassies and has yet to report any incidents. There were also attacks on other diplomatic missions in Iran and Syria among others. Many protesters directed their ire at Denmark, prompting the closure of several Danish embassies in predominantly Muslim countries, including Indonesia and Pakistan.
The uproar came as some Muslims believe it is forbidden by the Quran to show an image of the prophet.
Violent demonstrations erupted across the world in early 2006 after other newspapers reprinted the images as a matter of free speech. Westergaard's cartoon depicted the prophet wearing a bomb as a turban with a lit fuse. The image, by Morgenavisen Jullands-Posten cartoonist Westergaard, was one of 12 cartoons about the Prophet Mohammed originally published in September 2005. Newspapers in Spain, Sweden and the Netherlands also republished the drawing Wednesday as part of their coverage of Tuesday's arrests. It said: "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 always will defend," in comments reported by The Associated Press. The move came one day after Danish authorities arrested three people allegedly plotting a "terror-related assassination" of Kurt Westergaard, the cartoonist behind the drawing.īerlingske Tidende, was one of the newspapers involved in the republication by newspapers in Denmark. (CNN) - Newspapers across Europe Wednesday reprinted the controversial cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed that sparked worldwide protests two years ago.
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