(more info to come,, will be adding to this post)
Kurt Westergaard is interviewed by the National Post’s Jonathan Kay on Friday Oct 2. Here is Jonathan (center) photographed with Kurt Westergaard and Lars Hedigaard receiving his signed ‘Moetoon’.On the left, Is Lars, president of the International Free Press Society.
photo by James Cohen
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Kurt Westergaard: ‘The most hated man in Mecca’
Meet the Danish cartoonist who set the world on fire
Adrian Humphreys, National Post Published: Saturday, October 03, 2009
cinemas, music stores, fast food outlets and other
perceived symbols of Western influence in response
to the publication of cartoons depicting the ...
Despite a grey beard and heavy cane making him look every bit his 74 years, Kurt Westergaard dresses like a teenager: bright red cargo pants strapped up by a studded black belt and red suspenders over a black top, capped by a flowing red scarf and black Stetson.
His duo-chromatic clothing is perhaps the least shocking part of his appearance, however.
As the Danish man who drew the notorious cartoon of the Islamic prophet Muhammad with a lit bomb wrapped in his turban -- considered the most inflammatory of 12 cartoons published four years ago this week that ignited a deadly furor -- it is the absence of security and the carefree way he stands outside smoking that is most striking.
Beside him, a friend casually carries a large framed reproduction of the cartoon, as if to dispel any mystery about who the flamboyantly dressed man might be. "It is very relaxing," Mr. Westergaard says about being in Canada for the first time as a spattering of raindrops, rather than concerns over security, drives him indoors. "At home I live under police surveillance, protected by the Danish secret service. We lived in 10 different safe houses and drove 10 different cars.
"I live in a house now which is really a fortress, with steel doors, a panic room, reinforced glass in the windows, surveillance cameras and so on."
That is the life of a man under threat, with a lucrative bounty on his head. With his fear now transformed into anger, Mr. Westergaard has emerged from his protective cocoon.
Rather than work to mitigate the offence he and fellow Danish artists caused to some fundamentalist Muslims, however, he remains unrepentant and unabashed.
"I don't regret anything," he says.
"I would do it again," he says, even knowing now what would happen. Freedom of expression is too important, he says, although he remains humble about facing the danger from his stance.
"I have one advantage -- I am an old man. There is not so much at stake for me anymore. I have lived most of my life, so I have not so much at risk."
Despite the safety he feels in Canada during his lightning visit yesterday, he sheepishly admits he would like to see the RCMP, not for protection but because of fond childhood memories of a comic book, Sergeant Preston of the Yukon, about a brash Mountie and his dog Yukon King.
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