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A former Danish Islamist who seven years ago traveled the Muslim world fueling the uproar over newspaper caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad is back in the headlines in Denmark after doing an about-face on the issue. Once a leading critic of the Danish cartoons, which sparked fiery protests in Muslim countries, Lebanese-born Ahmad Akkari now says the Jyllands-Posten newspaper had the right to print them. His unexpected change of heart has received praise from pundits and politicians in recent weeks, though some question his sincerity. It has also disappointed some in the country’s Muslim minority who were deeply offended by...

Denmark’s integration minister, Inger Støjberg, took to Facebook on Tuesday to praise the Mohammed cartoons that a dozen years ago plunged her country into its most severe international crisis ever. Støjberg shared a screenshot of her iPad background displaying cartoonist Kurt Westergaard’s drawing of the prophet Mohammed wearing a bomb in his turban. She did so in response to the decision by Skovgaard Museum in Viborg to not display the 12 caricatures of Mohammed published by Jyllands-Posten newspaper as part of an exhibition on blasphemy. The integration minister said that the drawings, particularly the one by Westergaard that has led...

Somali accused of attempting to kill Kurt Westergaard with axe The Somali man who threatened Mohammed cartoonist Kurt Westergaard with an axe and a knife took the stand at the court in Aarhus today. The man, 29-year-old Mohamed Geele, is charged with intending to commit an act of terrorism, attempted murder, assaulting an officer on duty and violating the weapons law. He denies the charges of attempted terror and attempted murder, but admits to breaking into Westergaard’s house on January 1 last year. Geele told the court that he felt provoked by Westergaard’s indifference to allegations that his Mohammed drawings...

German Chancellor Angela Merkel risked angering Muslims by speaking at an awards ceremony on Wednesday for a Dane whose cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed provoked sometimes violent protests by Muslims five years ago. The 75-year-old cartoonist Kurt Westergaard, whose drawings of Mohammed that offended Muslims worldwide first appeared in Danish paper Jyllands-Posten in 2005, was due to receive a prize on Wednesday evening at a conference on freedom of the press. At a time of fierce debate in Germany over disparaging remarks about Muslim immigrants made by a central bank member, some Muslims criticized the center-right chancellor and the media...

Young Swedes were encouraged to join the militant Islamist group al-Shabaab by the Danish-Somali man who attacked Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard with an axe. Last winter, he visited Gothenburg in western Sweden together with another Danish-Somali man who later blew himself and 23 others up in a suicide bomb attack in the Somali capital of Mogadishu last month. The man reportedly visited two Gothenburg mosques in an attempt to recruit young Swedes to al-Shabaab. al-Shabaab has successfully recruited around 20 young people from Sweden, some of whom who have been killed in battle.

Bruce BawerWhile Europe Sneered Kurt Westergaard and other brave critics of Islamic fanaticism continue to fend for themselves. 5 January 2010 Yesterday, a friend sent me a link to an article entitled “Eurabian Follies” on the website of the journal Foreign Policy. The author, Justin Vaïsse, took to task several authors, including me, who have warned in recent years of the Islamization of Europe. Vaïsse countered these authors’ mountains of hard facts with a big helping of the usual supercilious sneering. His thesis: Europe is chugging along just fine; Islam poses no real challenge to the continent’s freedom and...

The intelligence service has rejected criticism that it did not detain the Somali who attacked Kurt Westergaard The Danish Security and Intelligence Service (PET) has rejected criticism that it could have detained the 28-year-old Somali who attacked cartoonist Kurt Westergaard a couple of months ago and thus could have prevented last Friday’s attack. Within hours of the attack on Friday at 10 p.m., PET announced that the man had links to the radical al-Shabaab organisation as well as to al-Qaeda leaders in East Africa. It is not clear when the man appeared on PET’s radar or why, but the man...

Writing at Brussels Journal today, Thomas Landen brings the attempted assassination of Kurt Westergaard on Friday in Denmark into vivid focus by comparing the horrific moment of crisis -- Westergaard and his five-year-old granddaughter in his steel-reinforced secure room (the bathroom) as the Muslim would-be assassin struck at the door with an axe yelling "blood!" and "revenge!" -- to the well-known scene in "The Shining" when the wife and child of Jack Nicholson cower behind a door as Nicholson strikes at it with an axe yelling, "Heeeere's Johnny!" The piece is aptly titled "Heeeere's Mohammed!" Was this Somali man, dada-esquesly...

The attack on illustrator Kurt Westergaard wasn't the first attempt to carry out a deadly fatwa. When Muslims tried to murder Salman Rushdie 20 years ago, the protests among intellectuals were loud. Today, though, Western writers and thinkers would rather take cover than defend basic rights.

The 28-year-old Somali who attacked the Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard was recently in prison for seven weeks in Kenya. The formal reason for his incarceration was that a Kenyan police checkpoint found him without travel documents. At the time of his arrest, Kenyan police was investigating reports of plans to carry out a terrorist attack against, among others, the American Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who was due in the country. The Kenyan media has linked the man’s arrest with the terrorist plans, a link that intelligence sources have confirmed. The Danish Security and Intelligence Service has previously said in...

The man charged with attempted manslaughters of the cartoonist Kurt Westergaard and a police officer has denied the charges. The young man being charged by police for the attempted manslaughters of the Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard and a police officer has appeared in a remand hearing in Århus on a stretcher and denies the charges. The Danish-Somali man arrived at court on a stretcher, covered with white hospital blankets and with a towel around his head to prevent him from being recognised. Remand Judge Kristian Richter has issued an injunctioin against naming the man and has remanded him in custody...

Report: Cartoonist attacker targeted Clinton Somali shot at artist’s home was held over plot in Kenya, newspaper says COPENHAGEN - A Somali man charged in connection with an attack on a Danish cartoonist was arrested last year over an alleged terror plot targeting Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, according to reports. Quoting the Danish newspaper Politiken, Britain's Sky News reported that the 28-year-old was among four other suspects who were held over a foiled attack on a bus station and two hotels in Nairobi, Kenya. The alleged plot coincided with Clinton's visit to the country during an 11-day tour of...

A man charged with attempting to kill a Danish cartoonist over his Muslim prophet Mohammed caricatures was also involved in an alleged plot against US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a Danish newspaper reported Sunday. But one Danish diplomat played down the report. The online edition of Politiken newpaper said that the 28-year-old man charged with having tried to kill cartoonist Kurt Westergaard late Friday had also been involved in a plot against Clinton in Kenya. Clinton visited Kenya last August. Their report said Kenyan police had arrested the suspect in 2009 and had held him for seven weeks. The...

Just when Denmark thought the worst was over, Islamic fury has come back to haunt it with an assassination attempt on the artist whose cartoon of the prophet Muhammad as a suicide bomber had an explosive impact four years ago on the Muslim world. An axe-wielding Somali extremist broke into the home of Kurt Westergaard on Friday night as the 75-year-old cartoonist was looking after Stephanie, his five-year-old granddaughter. Westergaard, whose little ink drawing of Muhammad with a bomb in his turban sparked riots throughout the Middle East in 2006, has received numerous death threats. He pressed an alarm button...

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) – A Somali man armed with an axe and suspected of links with al Qaeda broke into the home of a Danish cartoonist whose drawings of the Prophet Mohammad caused global Muslim outrage and was shot and wounded by police. Hours later, the 28-year-old was stretchered into court on Saturday and denied charges of trying to kill Kurt Westergaard. The Somali also denied trying to murder a police officer at Westergaard's home in the town of Aarhus late on Friday after he broke into the house armed with a knife and an axe, police said.Danish police intelligence said...

Remember the Danish cartoons? A 27-year old Somali does: Danish police on Friday shot and wounded a man trying to enter the home of an artist who drew controversial cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed. The man, a 27-year-old Somalian who was armed with an axe, was caught trying to break into the home of Kurt Westergaard at 10pm local time, police said. Police shot the man, injuring him in his leg... Mr Westergaard's cartoon was seen at the time as the most controversial, as it depicted the Prophet with a bomb in his turban. "Controversial" but entirely vindicated by events...

Recently a Georges Soros funded survey stated that Muslims in the UK are the most patriotic Muslims in Europe. Was this what he was talking about? Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard hid in ‘panic room’ during home invasion BY SORAYA ROBERTS The Somali man who broke into Kurt Westergaard’s home wielding an ax was unable to get to the Danish cartoonist because he was hiding in a “panic room.” Westergaard grabbed

COPENHAGEN -- A Somali man was charged with two counts of attempted murder on Saturday for an attack on a Danish artist whose 2005 cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad ignited riots and outrage in Muslim countries, authorities said. The 28-year-old Somali man with ties to al Qaeda broke into Kurt Westergaard's home in Aarhus, Denmark, on Friday night armed with an ax and a knife, said Jakob Scharf, head of Denmark's PET intelligence agency. The 74-year-old artist, who has been targeted with several death threats since depicting the Prophet Muhammad with a bomb-shaped turban, pressed an alarm and fled with...

COPENHAGEN – Police foiled an attempt to kill an artist who drew cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad that sparked outrage in the Muslim world, the head of Denmark's intelligence service said Saturday. Jakob Scharf, who heads the PET intelligence service, said a 28-year-old Somalia man was armed with an ax and a knife when he attempted to enter Kurt Westergaard's home in Aarhus shortly after 10 p.m. (2100 GMT) on Friday.

Danish authorities say a Somali man has been charged with two counts of attempted murder for an attack on an artist whose cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad ignited riots and outrage across the Muslim world. Jakob Scharf, head of Denmark's intelligence agency, said the 28-year-old Somali man with ties to al-Qaida broke into Kurt Westergaard's home in Aarhus on Friday night. The 75-year-old artist pressed an alarm and fled with his 5-year-old granddaughter to a special safe room. Police say they then shot the attacker in the hand and knee when he threatened them. The suspect was charged at a...