Danish newspapers republish Prophet cartoon

By Kim McLaughlin and Gelu Sulugiuc

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Danish newspapers on Wednesday reprinted one of the drawings of the Prophet Mohammad that caused global Muslim outrage two years ago.

The newspapers said they were republishing the drawing in protest over a plot to murder the cartoonist.

The republication of the cartoon -- showing the Prophet with a bomb in his turban -- drew criticism from Danish Muslims, who said it would only stoke anger.

A Danish citizen of Moroccan descent and two Tunisians were arrested on Tuesday for planning to murder 73-year-old Kurt Westergaard, a cartoonist at Jyllands-Posten, the Danish paper that originally published the drawings in September 2005.

Five Danish daily newspapers, more than 10 smaller papers and a Swedish daily reprinted Westergaard's cartoon, which had caused the greatest controversy before. Most Muslims consider any depiction of the founder of Islam as offensive.

Denmark's Muslim community makes up about 3 percent of the 5.5 million population.

An editorial in left-leaning Politiken, one of the newspapers that reprinted the cartoon, called the murder plot an attack on Denmark's democratic culture.

"Regardless of whether Jyllands-Posten at the time used freedom of speech unwisely and with damaging consequences, the paper deserves unconditional solidarity when it is threatened with terror," it said.