Topic: Kurt Westergaard

Kurt Westergaard (born 13 July 1935) is a Danish cartoonist who created the controversial cartoon of the Muslim Prophet Muhammad wearing a bomb in his turban. This cartoon was the most contentious of the 12 Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons, which met with strong and sometimes violent reactions from Muslims worldwide. Since the drawing of the cartoon, Westergaard has received several death threats and murder attempts. As a result, he is under constant police protection.

Westergaard was born on 13 July 1935 in the village of Døstrup, in the Himmerland area of Jutland. He grew up in a conservative Christian (Inner Mission) environment in Himmerland, going to Sunday school. Westergaard was introduced to Cultural Radicalism during high school in the 1950s, which he experienced as an "epiphany" and a liberation from the religious subjugation of his childhood.

Westergaard is a trained schoolteacher, educated at Ranum Seminarium. After working as a teacher for some time, he later enrolled at the University of Copenhagen to study psychology. He subsequently worked as a teacher for handicapped children, and has been principal of a school in the Djursland area for the handicapped.