Kurt Westergaard and the World's Most Notorious Cartoon

Mathias Wivel in The Comics Journal.

Kurt Westergaard by Thomas Thorhauge in the weekly Weekendavisen, July 22, 2021

In the past year, two protagonists of the cartoon controversies of the naughts passed away. 

The Dane Kurt Westergaard, who drew the infamous image of the Prophet Muhammad with a bomb in his turban, died in July from long-standing illness, while the Swedish artist Lars Vilks (1946–2021), who among other things drew the face of the Prophet on the body of a dog, was killed in a car accident on 3 October, along with two police officers assigned to protect him against attacks. 

Written shortly after Westergaard’s death, this article focuses in part on his career and work, but also engages the more fundamental issues of multiculturalism, blasphemy, and free expression to which the two artists contributed.