2017-10-02
Kurt Westergard, 2005.07.27
It's a well-kept secret, but Kurt Westergaard's famous Mohammed Cartoon was not his first attempt.
Two months before the publication of the famous twelve Mohammed Cartoons, Westergaard had illustrated a feature article by the former dean of Odense, Poul E. Andersen.
Kurt Westergard, 2005.09.30
The subject was Islamic terror, in particular the recent terror attack in the London Underground train. The title of the article was "Når tro føder terror" - i.e. "when faith gives birth to terrorism".
Westergaard made the illustration to the right. There is no caption, so it's everybody's guess whether it was meant to show a random Muslim terrorist or the prophet himself.
Two months later Westergaard along with ca. 40 other colleagues were asked by Jyllands-Posten to "draw Mohammed as you see him". Maybe because of the short notice (and maybe because of the low fee) Westergaard evidently chose to recycle his two months old drawing.
By now the fuse had burned shorter, the beard had grown longer, the unknown terrorist had become Mohammed himself, and the rest is history.
