Prints of Prophet Mohammad cartoon go on sale in Denmark

AFGHAN CARTOONS/

COPENHAGEN: Denmark’s Free Press Society is selling prints of a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed published by a Danish newspaper in 2005 that angered Muslims and sparked worldwide protests, it said Wednesday.

One thousand prints of the cartoon are up for sale for 250 dollars on the group’s website. Each print is numbered and signed by the cartoonist Kurt Westergaard.

‘Now you can own an exclusive print of the most famous picture of our time,’ the newspaper said on its website.

Westergaard, 73, is one of 12 cartoonists whose drawings of the Muslim prophet were first published in Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten in September 2005, sparking controversy among Muslims worldwide.

He has since been the subject of threats, forcing him to live in hiding. Two Tunisians were arrested in Denmark last year on suspicion of planning to murder Westergaard, and later released without trial after they appealed a government order for their expulsion on national security grounds.

‘The image won Kurt Westergaard international fame, but it has also forced him to live under constant police protection,’ the Free Press Society said on its website.

‘Despite threats and concrete murder plots planned by Islamists, he has nonetheless never expressed any regret and never apologised for being a free artist.’ The Free Press Society, founded in 2004, started selling the prints about a week ago to raise money for its cause, its president Lars Hedegaard said.

So far, about 100 to 200 have been sold. The organisation, whose 600 members include journalists, schoolteachers and consultants among others, has been accused by some of being anti-Islam.

‘We distinguish between Muslims —many of whom are moderate —and Islam. Unfortunately there is no major tendency within Islam that can be called moderate,’ he told.

‘Our organisation is not based on any political view. But the biggest threat to free speech comes from Islam,’ he said.

The 12 cartoons were considered offensive by many Muslims and their publication sparked violent protests worldwide in January and February 2006.

Demonstrators burned Danish flags in protests that culminated in February 2006 with the torching of Danish diplomatic offices in Damascus and Beirut and dozens of deaths in Nigeria, Libya and Pakistan.

Last week Turkey initially opposed the appointment of Anders Fogh Rasmussen as Nato’s next secretary general, citing among other factors the former Danish prime minister’s defence of Jyllands-Posten’s right to print the cartoons.( Source Dawn)

Popularity: 1% [?]