COPENHAGEN: Danish artist Kurt Westergaard, famed for drawing a blasphemous caricature of the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) which sparked outrage around the Muslim world, has died at the age of 86, his family told media on Sunday. The illustrator was behind 12 drawings published by conservative daily newspaper Jyllands-Posten under the headline “The Face of Mohammed [PBUH]”, one of which sparked particular anger. The anger then escalated into anti-Danish violence across the Muslim world in February 2006. The violence linked to the cartoons culminated in a 2015 massacre that left 12 people dead at the Charlie Hebdo satirical weekly in Paris, which had reprinted the cartoons in 2012. In early 2010, Danish police caught a 28-year-old Somalian armed with a knife in Westergaard’s house, where he was purportedly planning to kill him.

Source: Pakistan Today July 19, 2021 09:45 UTC