The Forbidden Planet International Blog Log

Just caught this over at the BBC site: Danish police shoot intruder at cartoonist’s home.

Kurt Westergaard, the most outspoken of the 12 cartoonists involved in the furore over cartoons depicting the prophet Mohammed back in 2005, had to escape to a panic room in his house with his grand-daughter following the break in by a Somali man wielding an axe and a knife.

Danish police shot the man, who is currently in custody. He is reported to be a member of the Somali Al-Shabab Islamist rebel organisation. Muslims in Denmark have condemned his actions.

Westergaard’s 2005 cartoon showed the prophet Mohammed with a bomb in his turban, and although Westergaard’s paper withdrew the cartoon, it was reprinted all over the world, sparking violence, rioting and attacks on Danish embassies around the world. The cartoonists involved received various death threats at the time and, as this latest attack goes to show, these twelve men who did nothing more than exercise their rights of free speech, are still under threat.

It brings to mind the 2008 quote by Philippe Val, the editorial director of the French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo:

“If we no longer have the right to ridicule those who inflict terror on us, that’s a problem”