Danish Court Protects Free Expression-Muslims Go Haywire-

Cartoons Lawsuit Rejected
Sky News
October 26, 2006

A Danish court has dismissed a legal action against the newspaper that published 12 cartoons of the prophet Mohammed, triggering huge protests around the world. Furious Muslims took to the streets claiming the drawings were blasphemous and insulting.

Some of the demonstrations turned violent, with protesters killed in Libya and Afghanistan. In Beirut, the Danish Embassy was set on fire. Elsewhere, the Danish flag was burnt.

The City Court in Aarhus said it accepted some Muslims had been offended by the drawings, printed last September in Jyllands-Posten, but it added there was no reason to assume the cartoons were meant to "belittle Muslims".

The paper said it had published the cartoons to challenge the view artists imposed self-censorship when depicting Islam for fear of causing offence. The caricatures were reprinted in European papers in January and February, fuelling angry protests in the Islamic world and Europe.

Islamic law forbids any depiction of the prophet, even positive ones, to prevent idolatry.

The seven Muslim groups filed the defamation lawsuit against the paper in March, after Denmark's top prosecutor decided not to press criminal charges. He said the drawings did not violate the country's laws against racism or blasphemy.

The plaintiffs, who claimed to have the backing of 20 more Islamic organisations in Denmark, had sought damages of 100,000 kroner (about US$17,000). The lawsuit said the cartoons depict Mohammed as "belligerent, oppressing women, criminal, crazy and unintelligent".

It also claimed "a connection is made between the Prophet and war and terror".