Danish newspaper settles over Mohammed Prophet cartoons

The Danish newspaper Politiken Friday said it apologized for offending Muslims after it reprinted controversial cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed, and said it has reached a settlement with organization's representing his descendants, DPA reported.

The newspaper was one of several Danish newspapers that in February 2008 reprinted several images of the Prophet Mohammed that were initially published by the Jyllands-Posten newspaper, causing outrage among Muslims and violent protests worldwide in early 2006.

The cartoons were reprinted after Danish security police disclosed they had averted a plot to murder Jyllands-Posten cartoonist Kurt Westergaard, who had depicted Mohammed with a bomb in his turban.

Politiken said Friday that the decision to reprint Westergaard's drawing was "part of the newspaper's news coverage" and was not an editorial opinion or aimed at offending Muslims in Denmark or elsewhere.

The setttlement was reached between Politiken and representatives of eight organizations in countries including Egypt, Libya and Saudi Arabia representing 94,000 people who claime to be descendants of the Prophet Mohammed.

The organizations and clients represented by the Saudi Arabia- based law firm of Ahmed Zaki Yamani said "the dispute is settled, and agree not to pursue any legal or administrative action against Politiken," according to lawyer Faisal Yamani who represented them.

"It may possibly reduce the tensions that have shown themselves to be so resilient," Politiken's Editor-in-Chief Toger Seidenfaden said in a statement.

Westergaard, who on January 1 was forced to barricade himself in a reinforced room after a 28-year-old Somali-born man broke into his home and threatened him, also said he was dismayed.

"Politiken is casting aside freedom of speech," he told the online edition of Jyllands-Posten.

Other Danish newspapers including Jyllands-Posten and leading politicians criticized Politiken's settlement, as did the head of the Danish Union of Journalists.