No Laughing Matter

“The most prominent of the Danish cartoonists whose 12 drawings provoked outrage throughout the Muslim world in 2006, narrowly survived an assassination attempt late on Friday night. His attacker, who has close ties to both al-Qa’ida and a Somali group that has killed 42 relief workers trying to bring food to displaced people, was shot and arrested by police. He has now been charged with two counts of attempted murder in this, the latest effort to kill Kurt Westergaard or his cartoonist colleagues. It is less than a year ago that Mr Westergaard, 74, and his wife stopped living in hiding in a succession of ‘safe houses’ provided by the Danish authorities and began to have a more open existence. Their home in Aarhus, Denmark’s second city, was said to be like a ‘fortress’, a claim which now looks less than convincing. It was at this house on Friday evening that the man, aged 28 and armed with an axe and a knife, managed to penetrate whatever alarm systems there were, break a window and enter the property.”