Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard speaks at a news conference before receiving the M100 Media Prize 2010 in Potsdam near Berlin, eastern Germany, Wednesday, Sept. 8, 2010. Westergaard drew the most controversial of 12 caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed, first published in a Danish newspaper in 2005, which many Muslims considered offensive. (AP Photo/Odd Andersen, pool)
Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard, left, speaks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, right, and Joachim Gauck, center, former head of the state-funded body which manages the archives of the former East German secret police Stasi, before receiving the M100 Media Prize 2010 in Potsdam near Berlin, eastern Germany, Wednesday, Sept 8, 2010. Westergaard drew the most controversial of 12 caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed, first published in a Danish newspaper in 2005, which many Muslims considered offensive. (AP Photo/Odd Andersen, pool)
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Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard, left, speaks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel before receiving the M100 Media Prize 2010 in Potsdam near Berlin, eastern Germany, Wednesday, Sept 8, 2010. Westergaard drew the most controversial of 12 caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed, first published in a Danish newspaper in 2005, which many Muslims considered offensive. (AP Photo/Odd Andersen, pool)
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Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard, second from left, and his wife Gitte, left, speak with German Chancellor Angela Merkel (second right), the Mayor of Potsdam Jann Jakobs, right, and Joachim Gauck, former head of the state-funded body which manages the archives of the former East German secret police Stasi, before receiving the M100 Media Prize 2010 in Potsdam near Berlin, eastern Germany, Wednesday, Sept 8, 2010. Westergaard drew the most controversial of 12 caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed, first published in a Danish newspaper in 2005, which many Muslims considered offensive. (AP Photo/Odd Andersen, pool)
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Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard delivers his acceptance speech after receiving the M100 Media Prize 2010 in Potsdam near Berlin, eastern Germany, Wednesday, Sept. 8, 2010. Westergaard drew the most controversial of 12 caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed, first published in a Danish newspaper in 2005, which many Muslims considered offensive. (AP Photo/Odd Andersen, pool)
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Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard, left, is congratulated on his prize by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, right, and the former head of the state-funded body which manages the archives of the former East German secret police Stasi Joachim Gauck, center, after receiving the M100 Media Prize 2010 in Potsdam near Berlin, eastern Germany, Wednesday, Sept. 8, 2010. Westergaard drew the most controversial of 12 caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed, first published in a Danish newspaper in 2005, which many Muslims considered offensive. (AP Photo/Odd Andersen, pool)
( / AP)
Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard, left, is congratulated on his prize by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, right, and the former head of the state-funded body which manages the archives of the former East German secret police Stasi Joachim Gauck, center, after receiving the M100 Media Prize 2010 in Potsdam near Berlin, eastern Germany, Wednesday, Sept. 8, 2010. Westergaard drew the most controversial of 12 caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed, first published in a Danish newspaper in 2005, which many Muslims considered offensive. (AP Photo/Odd Andersen, pool)
( / AP)
Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard, who sparked Muslim anger with drawings of the Prophet Mohammed, and his wife Gitte, right, arrive for the awarding ceremony of the M100 media prize 2010 in Potsdam near Berlin, eastern Germany, Wednesday, Sept 8, 2010. Westergaard drew the most controversial of 12 caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed, first published in a Danish newspaper in 2005, which many Muslims considered offensive. (AP Photo/Johannes Eisele, pool)
( / AP)
BERLIN —
German Chancellor Angela Merkel praised the bravery of a Danish cartoonist who caricatured the Prophet Muhammad at an award ceremony honoring his achievements for freedom of speech.
In her speech praising illustrator Kurt Westergaard, “who has had to fear for his life since the publication of the cartoons in 2005,” Merkel emphasized Wednesday that media freedom is an important element of rights in Europe.
“It does not matter if we think his cartoons are tasteful or not, if we think they are necessary and helping or not,” Merkel said at the ceremony in the city of Potsdam. The question, she said, was, “Is he allowed to do this? Yes, he is.”
There have been at least three attempted attacks on the 75-year-old Westergaard or his newspaper, the Danish the Jyllands-Posten, since he and 11 other artists angered Muslims around the world by creating the Muhammad cartoons four years ago. Protesters in Muslim countries have torched Danish and other Western embassies.
Westergaard’s cartoon, which he said took 45 minutes to draw, was considered by many Muslims the most offensive of the 12. He has rejected calls to apologize, saying poking fun at religious symbols is protected by Denmark’s freedom of speech.
Merkel’s appearance at the award ceremony drew criticism from Muslim groups, who perceived it as an endorsement of Westergaard’s cartoon. Aiman Mazyek, general secretary of Germany’s Muslim Council, told public radio Deutschlandradio that Merkel is honoring the cartoonist who sullied “our Prophet ... and thereby all Muslims.”
Merkel’s spokesman, Steffen Seibert, rejected the criticism and said Merkel’s message was to underscore the importance of freedom of speech.
Merkel condemned plans by a pastor in the United States to burn the Muslim holy book to commemorate the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
“If a fundamentalist evangelical pastor in America wants to burn the Quran on Sept. 11, I find that - in a word - disrespectful, also abhorrent and false,” Merkel said.
Westergaard has been under police protection since February 2008, when Danish newspapers reprinted his caricature in a gesture of solidarity after police revealed a plot to kill him. In January, a Somali with a residence permit in Denmark broke into Westergaard’s home wielding an ax and a knife, but Westergaard was unhurt.
