Danish cartoonist who drew Prophet Muhammad’s caricature dies at 86

Kurt Westergaard, a Danish artist most known for drawing a caricature of Muhammad that provoked uproar throughout the Muslim world, died at the age of 86.

According to reports, Westergaard died in his sleep on July 14 after a long period of ill health.

The illustrator was behind one of 12 drawings titled ‘The Face of Mohammed’ that were published in 2005 by the conservative daily newspaper Jyllands-Posten, with his drawing provoking special outrage. As per Islamic tradition, no picture of the prophet should be made or shown.

Anti-Danish violence erupted across the Muslim world in 2006, killing hundreds and destroying Danish embassies, notably the one in Damascus, which was burnt down.

The violence in France connected to the drawings culminated in a 2015 massacre at the Paris headquarters of satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, which had reproduced the caricatures in 2012.

In a series of incidents that shocked France, a total of 17 people were killed over the course of three days. In shootouts with the police, all three assailants were dead, leaving just the accomplices to stand prosecution.

Westergaard was forced to go into hiding after receiving death threats. Following the arrest of three individuals for conspiring to assassinate the artist in 2008, the cartoon was reprinted in Denmark’s three leading newspapers. One was freed without prosecution, another was deported, and a third was detained at an immigration detention centre.

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In early 2010, police in Denmark apprehended a 28-year-old Somalian with a knife and an axe in Westergaard’s home, where he was intending to murder him.

Westergaard has worked as an illustrator for Jyllands-Posten since the mid-1980s, and according to the newspaper Berlingske, the drawing in question had previously been reproduced without causing much controversy.

During the last years of his life, Westergaard, like a number of others involved with the drawings, had to live under police protection at a secret address.