My new hero.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/na...?prmid=obinsite

A few pen strokes thrust Kurt Westergaard into the midst of an international crisis, exposing him to death threats and an alleged assassination plot.

Terror charges brought against two Chicago men this week show the 74-year-old Dane remains a potential target for extremists, four years after he drew a caricature of the Prophet Muhammad wearing a bomb-shaped turban.

"I am an old man so I am not so afraid anymore," Westergaard said Tuesday in an interview with Jyllands-Posten, the Danish newspaper that first published his drawing in September 2005 along with 11 other cartoons of Muhammad....

"I realize that when issues of religion are involved emotions run high, and all religions have their symbols, which possess great importance,' he said. "But when you live in a secularized society, it's clear that religion can't demand some sort of special status."... "I have a problem with the fact that we have people from another culture who don't accept that we use religious elements in a drawing."

Westergaard's supporters commended him for defending the freedom of speech.

"What I like about him is that he stands firm about his drawing," said Helle Merete Brix, chief editor of a magazine published by Denmark's Free Press Society. "He is a product of the European way of poking fun of authorities, whether they are religious or political."

Asked if he regretted drawing the cartoon, Westergaard gave an unequivocal answer.

"No, I don't," he told DR. "I mean, the friction between these two cultures (Muslim and Western) is always there. What will happen in the long run is that our culture - the materialistic, superior culture - will of course win out, and we will have, I think, a modified version of Islam that fits in with our secular society."