Illustrating the sheer hatred and violence that runs through Al Qaeda, the terrorist group sent an axe wielding man to break into the home of Danish cartoonist, Kurt Westergaard, 75, attempting to murder him in the presence of his 5-year-old granddaughter. He fled to a safe room in his house and called for police, who shot the intruder.
Kurt Westergaard
Westergaard drew a cartoon of Muhammad for a newspaper in 2005, which some deemed offensive. As such, he has lived under round the clock protection for the past few years.
Wounded Al Qaeda operative being wheeled into court after being shot by police for trying to kill Kurt Westergaard
Panic room saved artist, Kurt Westergaard, from Islamist assassin
January 3, 2010 - Just when Denmark thought the worst was over, Islamic fury has come back to haunt it with an assassination attempt on the artist whose cartoon of the prophet Muhammad as a suicide bomber had an explosive impact four years ago on the Muslim world.
An axe-wielding Somali extremist broke into the home of Kurt Westergaard on Friday night as the 75-year-old cartoonist was looking after Stephanie, his five-year-old granddaughter.
Westergaard, whose little ink drawing of Muhammad with a bomb in his turban sparked riots throughout the Middle East in 2006, has received numerous death threats. He pressed an alarm button to summon police when the attacker entered the house in Aarhus, Denmark’s second city, by breaking a window.
He did not have time to collect the child from the living room before locking himself into a “panic room”, a specially fortified bathroom. He said the assailant had shouted “swear words, really crude words” and shrieked about “blood” and “revenge”, as he smashed the axe in vain against the bathroom door...
