28 March 2008

COPENHAGEN - A Danish newspaper cartoonist on Friday criticised the "misuse" of his controversial cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed in Dutch MP Geert Wilders' new Islam-critical film.

The film, Fitna, was released online Thursday evening.

"My cartoon has been misused again. It has been pulled from its original context and set in a completely different one," cartoonist Kurt Westergaard told Danish broadcaster DR.

Westergaard's depiction of the Prophet Mohammed with a bomb in his turban was one of 12 published in newspapers that sparked violent protests in 2006 by Muslims worldwide and triggered a boycott of Danish goods.

"It is a drawing aimed specifically against Islamic terror that uses interpretations of the Koran and Islam as spiritual ammunition," Westergaard said.

"Wilders has not asked me for permission, so it is simply a case of violation of copyright rules," Westergaard said, adding he would contact legal experts Friday.

Leading Danish newspapers reprinted the cartoons in February after Danish security police said they had averted an alleged plot to murder Westergaard.

The publication sparked new protests.

Westergaard earlier this month went to court to stop a Danish anti-Islam group from using his cartoon in connection with a protest in the city of Aalborg.

[Copyright dpa 2008]