The Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten published on Friday reproductions of highly blasphemous cartoons of the Prophet Muhammed (PBUH) by Kurt Westergaard, the victim of attempted murder last week. In an article on Westergaard, the daily printed small versions of six out of the 12 drawings by the Danish cartoonist that had infuriated Muslims around the world when a Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten first published them in 2005.
Several of the drawings were seen as linking Islam and the Prophet Muhammed (PBUH) to terrorism and suicide bombings. On January 2, an axe-wielding 28-year-old broke into Westergaard's home screaming for "revenge" and "blood" before police - alerted by the cartoonist who had hidden in a panic room - shot and arrested him. Referring to the case of the attacker in Denmark, Aftenposten's editor Hilde Haugsgjerd said it seemed "natural and justified to republish the artistic and journalistic body of work that is likely the cause of this violence".
Aftenposten first published copies of the cartoons in 2005 but did not join newspapers in many other countries when they reprinted in 2006 some or all of Westergaard's drawings, citing freedom of expression. Angry crowds had demonstrated across the Muslim world, leaving dozens of people dead and causing major damage to Danish embassies and other facilities.
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