Mobile UPI  |   About UPI  |   UPI en Español  |   UPI Arabic  |   UPIU  |   My Account
Search:
Go

Danish cartoonist not planning Jordan trip

|
|
 
  
Published: Aug. 15, 2008 at 8:31 PM

COPENHAGEN, Denmark, Aug. 15 (UPI) -- Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard says he is not planning to go to Jordan to face a trial over his controversial caricature of Mohammed, the founder of Islam.

A Jordanian prosecutor in June summoned Westergaard to answer questions after local media sued over his cartoon, which was republished in at least 17 Danish dailies in February. In an interview with Der Spiegel, Westergaard said he would likely be arrested the moment he stepped foot in Jordan.

The cartoon, depicting Mohammed with a bomb in his turban, was one of 12 originally published in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten in 2005.

Asked what he would say to a Jordanian court, Westergaard told the German newspaper he would try to explain the cartoon was not an attack at Islam.

"I would try to explain that the cartoon was not aimed at Islam as a whole but aimed at the terrorists, who use part of Islam as their spiritual ammunition," he said. "You could also say that the terrorists have taken the prophet as their hostage."

Westergaard conceded it "has been very difficult to get Muslims to understand my intentions."

Topics: Kurt Westergaard
Recommended Stories
© 2008 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.

Order reprints
  
Join the conversation
Most Popular Collections
Notable deaths of 2012 Scripps National Spelling Bee AmfAR Cinema Against AIDS gala
Indianapolis 500 Presidential Medal of Freedom Memorial Day around the nation
Additional Top News Stories
1 of 20
Singer Janelle Monae arrives at the 2012 MTV Movie Awards in Universal City, California
View Caption
Singer Janelle Monae arrives for the MTV Movie Awards at the Gibson Amphitheatre in Universal City, California. UPI/Jim Ruymen
fark
Man turns dead pet cat into remote-controlled helicopter, calls it art (w/WTF pics)
"Good News" clubs teach children in public schools the Biblical importance of killing all nonbelievers...
Five arrested in prostitution sting. Article lists their names, ages and distance from a church
Photoshop this power tower technician
Driving drunk and unlicensed, with a kid not even buckled let alone in a safety seat, en route to...
Man killed in Spencer fire. The lava lamps must have ignited the blacklight posters