Infamous for drawing Prophet Muhammad’s cartoon, Westergaard dies, aged 86

Danish artist Kurt Westergaard, infamous for drawing a caricature of the Prophet Muhammad which sparked outrage around the Muslim world, has died at the age of 86.

Westergaard passed away while he was asleep after a long period of illness, his family told Danish newspaper Berlingske on Sunday.

The artist was behind 12 drawings published by conservative daily newspaper Jyllands-Posten under the headline “The Face of Muhammad”, one of which sparked particular anger as it showed the Prophet wearing a turban in the shape of a bomb.

The anger then brew up among Muslim community all across the globe and escalated into anti-Danish protests in February 2006. Some of the demonstrations turned violent. Danish and Norwegian embassies were attacked and dozens of people died.

In 2015, 12 people were killed in an attack on the Charlie Hebdo satirical weekly in Paris, which had reprinted the cartoons in 2012.

Westergaard had been working at Jyllands-Posten since the mid-1980s as an illustrator and according to Berlingske the drawing in question had been printed once before but without sparking much controversy.