Referencing the Friday, January 1st attack on cartoonist Kurt Westergaard in Aarhus, Denmark.

Cartoonists Rights Network, International vehemently condemns the latest attack on Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard. Most major news outlets ran stories about a Somali man living in Denmark who broke into Westergaard's house and tried to kill him with an ax and a knife. This same man had been previously apprehended and arrested in Kenya for plotting to attack Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. This is the third attempt on Westergaard’s life since 2005, and the most aggressive and deadly to date.

In 2005, the Danish newspaper, Jyllands-Posten published cartoons drawn by 12 Danish cartoonists depicting the Islamic Prophet Mohammad. Shortly thereafter, Al Qaeda issued a fatwa - a legal pronouncement in Islam, issued by a religious law specialist on a specific issue - pronouncing death sentences for all 12 Danish cartoonists. Months of violent demonstrations across the Muslim world in 2005-6 resulted in the deaths of well over 100 demonstrators. Denmark's export market dried up in the Middle East and Danish and other European companies lost millions in suspended trade. Calls for the death of the cartoonists escalated during this period as the cartoons were seen by Muslims as insulting the Prophet Mohammad. The incident became a flash point for long simmering resentments from both Europeans and Muslims as new populations of Muslim immigrants began to wield more and more influence in European countries.

Cartoonists Rights Network, International monitors and protects political cartoonists who find themselves in danger due to the power and impact of their work. Dr. Robert Russell, Executive Director of CRNI stated "Since the episode of the 12 Danish Cartoonists, almost all of our new clients have been coming from, and, more importantly, are based in Islamic countries. At this time, this region is ground zero in the fight for free speech and expression rights as well as corresponding democratic principles. Now, there exists an abundance of sensitivity to cartoons and the way they can evoke immediate and lasting impressions that there is almost a paranoia about them in conservative fundamentalist circles.”

In Europe, during the 400 years of the Catholic Inquisition, tens of thousands of people were killed in an ultimately vain attempt to keep new ideas from undermining the authority of the Catholic Church. The Inquisition was a fight for freedom of speech. The 12 Danish cartoonists, cartoonists working in the Middle East and specifically Danish cartoonist Kurt Wastergaard now find themselves entrenched in an all too similar inquisitory environment.

The Jyllands-Posten Society Editor Flemming Rose contracted for the cartoons after other illustrators and cartoonists refused to draw images for a children's book about the life of the Prophet. These illustrators and cartoonists were concerned about the potential for backlash that, in the case of the 12 cartoonist … and Mr. Rose, who is also subject to the death sentence fatwa, came to pass from the publication of the cartoons featured in the Jyllands-Posten. Rose perceived this unwillingness to drawe the Prophet as an intimidation of free speech in Denmark. In response he contracted for the cartoons depicting the Prophet. It should be noted that there are hundreds of pictures drawn by and for Muslims of the Prophet Mohammad.

CRNI calls on Moderate Imams of Islam, who far out number these who follow Fundamentalist views, to condemn these brutal actions and the “death sentence” fatwah against these cartoonists.

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