The Danish cartoonist, Kurt Westergaard, who enraged and insulted Muslims with provocative drawings, published by Charlie Hebdo, of the Prophet Muhammad cartoon dies at the age of 86.
Although he was an illustrator and artist for 50 years, he was best known for drawing the proactive picture of the Prophet Muhammad wearing a bomb as a turban. The images were printed by Charlie Hebdo magazine, which led to international fame for the small French publication, passing the slogan ‘Je Suis Charlie’ globally.
This slogan was used by the far-right to push their agenda in Europe and added fuel to the campaigns of Geert Wilders in Holland, Nigel Farage in the UK and more recently Matteo Salvini in Italy.
Danish Cartoonist & Charlie Hebdo hated Islam
Westergaard was a cartoonist for the conservative Jyllands-Posten newspaper from the early 1980s. He died after a long illness, his family told the Berlingske newspaper on Sunday.
He passionately hated the religion Islam and made a point to mock and highlight his views at every opportunity.
Images of the Prophet Muhammad are taboo in Islamic tradition and many Muslims considered the cartoons extremely and deliberately offensive.
The cartoons led to protests in Denmark and across the Muslim world. Danish embassies were attacked and dozens died in the riots that followed.
In 2008, Danish authorities charged three people with planning to murder Westergaard. Two years later they caught a man armed with a knife breaking into his home. Mohamed Geele was later convicted of attempted murder and terrorism and was jailed for nine years.
In his later years, he died without any remorse or regret for the carnage and destruction his cartoons had. In one of his last interviews, he said, ‘he would it the same again’ … regardless of the deaths of innocent people. Westergaard had to live with a bodyguard at secret addresses.
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