Danish Cartoonist Attacked – The Danish artist whose cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad with a bomb-shaped turban outraged the Muslim world was attacked in his home by a Somali terrorist.
Police shot a Somali man wielding an ax and a knife last night after he broke into the home of Kurt Westergaard.
A 28-year-old man with ties to al-Qaeda was caught by police when Westergaard activated an alarm in his home in Aarhus.
The intruder was shot in a knee and a hand after he wielded an ax at a police officer; he was hospitalized but his life was not in danger.
Westergaard, whose 5-year-old granddaughter was in the home on a sleepover, sought shelter in a specially made safe room when the suspect broke a window of the home, police said.
Westergaard said the assailant shouted “revenge” and “blood” as he tried to enter the bathroom where the cartoonist and the child had sought shelter.
Danish intelligence sources said the intruder has close relations to the Somali terrorist group al-Shabab and al-Qaeda leaders in eastern Africa. He will be charged with attempted murder.
Westergaard remains a potential target for extremists nearly five years after he drew a caricature of the Prophet Muhammad wearing a bomb-shaped turban.
In October, terror charges were brought against two Chicago men whose initial plan called for attacks on Jyllands-Posten’s offices. The plan was later changed to just killing the paper’s former cultural editor and Westergaard.
In 2008, Danish police arrested two Tunisian men suspected of plotting to murder Westergaard, but neither suspect was prosecuted.
One of them was deported and the other was released just days before the attack after an immigration board rejected efforts to expel him from Denmark.
And that’s the latest news on Danish cartoonist attacked.
Tags: al qaeda, Danish Cartoonist Attacked, kurt westergaard, muhammad cartoon, terror group
January 3rd, 2010 at 4:17 pm
Should have killed the Muslim intruder. I hope cartoonists continue to insult Islam.