The Mohammed cartoons

Hooray for Denmark, the little country that could.

Despite death threats and warnings of economic retaliation

Denmark’s three main newspapers will take the provocative step today of reprinting a cartoon showing the Prophet Muhammad wearing a bomb instead of a turban after the arrest yesterday of three suspected Islamic terrorists for plotting to murder the artist.

The cartoon by Kurt Westergaard was one of 12 depicting the prophet which triggered riots around the world leading to dozens of deaths when they first appeared in 2005. The violent backlash demonstrated starkly the incendiary interface between Islam and the boundaries of freedom of expression in Europe.

Denmark has a growing Moslem immigrant population among whom

police interviewed a Danish citizen of Moroccan descent and two Tunisians about plans for the “terror-related killing” of Mr Westergaard, 73, who said that he expected to live the rest of his life under threat of death.

Undeterred Westergaard

was back at work yesterday to draw a self-portrait for today’s editions. It shows him still clutching his pen and a Danish flag, but he is obscured by a dark and bloody cloud featuring Arabic script which declares: “Glorious Koran.”

Many media, including those in the US, refused to reprint or show the cartoons for fear of offending Moslem sensibilities or just plain fear of suffering as Westergaard. Most of these had no problem reproducing Piss Christ, a cross immersed in the artist's urine on display at a publicly funded museum despite Christian outcries.

Freedom of speech/press was the justification then. What's their excuse now?