Danish police shoot intruder at cartoonist’s home
Danish police have shot and wounded a man at the home of Kurt Westergaard, whose cartoon depicting the Prophet Muhammad sparked an international row.
Mr Westergaard scrambled into a panic room at his home in Aarhus after a man wielding an axe and a knife broke in.
The BBC had first reported that the intruder was wielding a hammer, not an axe.
Danish officials said the intruder was a 28-year-old Somali, who they did not name, but said was linked to the radical Islamist al-Shabab militia.
The cartoon, printed in 2005, prompted violent protests the following year.
The intruder was able to get in, in spite of the existing security measures:
His house has been heavily fortified and is under close police protection.
Police said the man had entered Mr Westergaard’s house armed with a knife and axe and had shouted in broken English that he wanted to kill him.
Mr Westergaard ran to a specially designed panic room where he raised the alarm.
Too bad the Danes don’t issue gun permits.
These are the cartoons, which, by the way, Yale University Press didn’t have the courage to publish in a book about them:
The Telegraph says,
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 since. To return to the theme of my post a couple of days back, a significant percentage of Muslims in the west do not understand concepts such as pluralism and freedom of expression. A further percentage understand them very well but reject them as loser fetishes incompatible with the requirements of Islamic supremacism – and have a shrewd sense that when, push comes to shove, a lot of these fine liberal concepts crumble to nothing. Is the percentage of Muslims who support Mr Westergaard’s right to free expression and the broader principles of intellectual liberty sufficient to make the importation of legions of “27-year old Somalians” a net benefit to Denmark?
The answer to that seems obvious. But Mr Westergaard is 74, and I’ll bet his half-century-younger attacker grasps however crudely the demographic symbolism, in Scandinavia and beyond.
UPDATE
Noticias 24 reports that Westergaard was at home with his five year old grandson granddaughter. Noticias 24 also has a photo of the police standing in front of Westergaard’s house after the incident:
More photos of the location at Noticias 24.
Prior posts on the Mohammed cartoons here
Fausta, thanks for posting this important news…once again the devotees of the Cult of Muhammad, the murdering charlatan-thug pedophile, show their true colors!!!
You reminded me about a book that came out a few months ago. When Yale University Press was about to publish a book on the images of Mohammed thru the ages, they were mau-maued into taking out all the pictures. The book, “Cartoons That Shook the World” was set to go to press when the author was informed that there would be *no* pictures, never mind the cartoons.
Gary Hull, an ethics professor at Duke, decided to print a book of the pictures that would have been in the book, not just the cartoon images. At the front of his small volume is a picture of Nathan Hale, a Yale alum who was hanged by the British three years after graduating from Yale. At his death he said, “I regret I have but one life to give for my country”.
In the foreword, Professor Hull remarks that Yale University Press, in bowing to the Islamofascists, had pre-emptively surrendered since no threats were made against it.
Look at the “Statement of Priniciple” signed by many authors (including Yale alums and those who have been published by Yale)
www/MuhammadImages.com
By the way, Kurt Westagaard is the man who drew Mohammed with a turban bomb. I hope he doesn’t have to move again.
the book, “Muhammad: The Banned Images” is available thru Amazon for $11.00. I have a copy and recommend it…included is the bas relief on the Supreme Court Building. Muslims object to it because he’s holding the Koran and a scimitar. But without the scimitar, who’d recognize him as Muhammad?
Amazon is playing cute with this one. Last time I looked it said that the books weren’t available and were on back order but hey, help yourself. Or words to that effect. Professor Hull told me that he had a whole roomful of boxes of them. So I ordered and it took a couple of weeks…which means that unlike other books, they hold your order for a while. Having sold textbooks thru Amazon I know you only have two days to get the book mailed to the customer. Evidently this doesn’t apply to Amazon as they held onto my order for 10 days or more before sedning it on to Dr.Hull.
oops. My bad…I didn’t notice you’d mentioned Dr. Hull’s book…
The Danes have responded to this attack by putting up another cartoon. I don’t think Somali terrorists understand irony, though:
http://gatesofvienna.blogspot.com/2010/01/first-motoon-of-day-appears-in-denmark.html
Dymphna: Thanks for mentioning the book “Muhammad: The ‘Banned’ Images.” Sorry about your tribulations with Amazon. The book is now $9.50, and they have supply in their warehouse, so it should not be taking two weeks for delivery.
Great news, Dr. Hull. You reminded me that I wanted to do a post about your book.
Sorry about the price reduction. That ought to be going for about 15.00, minimum…