COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Denmark's five major daily newspapers republished on Wednesday one of the 12 drawings of the Prophet Mohammad which angered Muslims around the world, as a protest against a plot to murder one of the cartoonists.
A Danish citizen of Moroccan descent and two Tunisians werearrested on Tuesday in western Denmark for planning to murder73-year-old Kurt Westergaard, a cartoonist at Jyllands-Posten,the Danish paper that originally published the drawings inSeptember 2005.
The five newspapers -- Jyllands-Posten, Politiken,Berlingske Tidende, BT and Ekstra Bladet -- on Wednesdayrepublished Westergaard's cartoon, which depicts the founder ofIslam with a bomb in his turban.
It was the cartoon that caused the most controversy whenthe original drawings sparked outrage among Muslims, most ofwhom consider any depiction of the Prophet as offensive.
Three Danish embassies were attacked and at least 50 peoplewere killed in rioting in 2006 in the Middle East, Africa andAsia. Several young Muslims have since been convicted inDenmark of planning bomb attacks, partly in protest at thecartoons.
An editorial in left-leaning Politiken called the murderplot "shocking and troubling."
"Their plans to kill Kurt Westergaard... are not just anattack on Westergaard but an attack on our democratic culture,"the editorial said.
"Regardless of whether Jyllands-Posten at the time usedfreedom of speech unwisely and with damaging consequences, thepaper deserves unconditional solidarity when it is threatenedwith terror," it said.
"That is why Politiken today... prints the drawing, eventhough at no time have we sympathised with Jyllands-Posten'sprovocation."
(Reporting by Gelu Sulugiuc; Editing by Dominic Evans )
