Kartoonistan Death Plot Busted

Thought the Muslims had forgiven the West for drawing cartoons of Mohammed? Think again, Bubba.

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) - Danish police said Tuesday they have arrested three people suspected of plotting to kill one of the 12 cartoonists behind the Prophet Muhammad drawings that sparked a deadly uproar in the Muslim world two years ago.

Two Tunisians and a Dane of Moroccan origin were arrested in pre-dawn raids in western Denmark, the police intelligence agency said.

The Dane was suspected of violating Danish terror laws but likely would be released after questioning as the investigation continues, said Jakob Scharf, the head of the PET intelligence service. The two Tunisians would be expelled from Denmark, he said.

The agency did it mention which cartoonist was targeted. However, according to Jyllands-Posten, the Danish newspaper that first published the drawings on Sept. 30, 2005, the suspects were planning to kill its cartoonist Kurt Westergaard.

"There were very concrete murder plans against Kurt Westergaard," said Carsten Juste, the paper's editor-in-chief.

Westergaard drew this cartoon, which became the most famous -- infamous? -- of the Jyllands-Posten cartoons. That little bomb-turban sparked Kartoonistan riots throughout much of the Muslim world in a show of ill-humor, intolerance and violence that shocked the free world.

The cartoonist, at 73, should be living a relaxed life now in the warm bosom of the European socialist-democratic state, but that is not the case, he told Jyllands-Posten:

"Of course I fear for my life when the police intelligence service say that some people have concrete plans to kill me. But I have turned fear into anger and resentment."

What else could you do if you were Westergaard? Indeed, what else could you do if you were the West?

Two years on, and the crazy Islamists are still ready to spill blood over our freedom of speech and our freedom of religion. Angry and resentful? You bet we are!