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Kurt Westergaard, who has been facing death threats for four years over his cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed that stirred Muslim wrath, is trying to settle back into his home — a month after an ax attack in his living room.
The Danish cartoonist, 74, surveys the broken glass, damage to one of his artworks and ax marks on the door of his Aarhus house. He doesn’t see himself as brave, and says he’s all the more determined to campaign for freedom.
“It doesn’t fit my temper to hide under a rock somewhere,” says Westergaard, pouring coffee in the small room where the New Year’s Day incident took place. “I have defended some core Danish values which stipulate that everyone should be able to practice their religion but it must not be at the expense of free speech. I just won’t stand for that.”
Westergaard’s 2005 cartoon of Mohammed wearing a turban that looked like a bomb produced Muslim anger around the world. He has become a symbol of the cultural clash between fundamentalist Islam and secular Denmark whose media ranked first in press freedom among 175 countries in the 2009 Press Freedom Index by the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders.
The cartoon was meant as a satirical note of caution that religion shouldn’t be used to promote violence, he says. He urges tolerance; Muslim groups accuse him of degrading their religion.
An informal man with gray hair and trimmed beard, Westergaard is waiting to hear if he can visit Muhudiin Mohamed Geele, 28, who is now in custody. {Read on}
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