Danish cartoonist welcomes Mohammed cartoon competition

May 20, 2010, 15:44 GMT

Copenhagen - A Danish cartoonist who drew a controversial 2005 cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed with a bomb in his turban welcomed an initiative Thursday to organize an online competition for other cartoons of the prophet.

A group with that aim has been set up on the social networking site Facebook. Pakistan has blocked both Facebook and the video- sharing site YouTube over the competition.

'The initiative should be seen as a manifestation of freedom of speech, where Mohammed and my cartoon have become icons for this cultural struggle,' cartoonist Kurt Westergaard told the Danish journalist federation's union newspaper Journalisten.

'I always think that debate is great. Of course there is a risk that it can provoke some of the dark forces that are inspired to (cause) terror,' he added. 'But that can't be helped, we should not let us be suppressed.'

Westergaard, who has received several threats over the caricature that was published in September 2005 by the Jyllands-Posten newspaper, said his cartoon was not intended to inflame sentiments.

'I have ... explained that the cartoon shows how terrorists get their spiritual ammunition from Islam and the Koran,' he said. 'But I have to say that the cartoon lives its own life, and I have no influence over it anymore.'