Danish cartoonist put on indefinite leave following attacks

From the Calgary Herald:

A file picture taken on Sept. 15, 2006 shows Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard posing at his home in Viby near Aarhus.

Photograph by: Preben Hupfeld, AFP/Getty Images

COPENHAGEN - Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard, who has been attacked and repeatedly threatened over a drawing of Prophet Mohammed, has been placed on indefinite leave by his newspaper "for security reasons," he told AFP Thursday.

"It is forced vacation but it looks a lot like I'm being retired," the 75-year-old cartoonist said, adding that he himself still had an "insatiable desire" to work.

The Danish cartoonist sparked violent protests in the Muslim world with a drawing of Mohammed wearing a turban shaped like a bomb, published along with 11 other cartoons of the Prophet in the Jyllands-Posten daily newspaper in September 2005.

He has received numerous death threats and on January 1 this year, a 28-year-old Somali man broke into his home near the northwestern city of Aarhus and attempted to kill him with an axe and a knife.

Westergaard, who survived by hiding in a panic room, said Thursday he would likely "reluctantly" accept retirement, but that he planned to meet the newspaper's chief editor on June 1 "to discuss the future."

Jyllands-Posten often allows people over the official retirement age of 67 to continue working, he said, adding however that the paper, in his opinion, wanted him to leave "for security reasons."

"It's a pity. I have become a too heavy burden and a very big security risk," he said, adding that he had not actually worked for the paper since last November.

"The management was worried following the arrests last year of two men in Chicago who planned to attack Jyllands-Posten, and after the attack on me in January," he explained.