In 2005 he drew a cartoon of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, wearing a bomb in his turban[1] as a part of the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons, which triggered several assassinations and murders committed by Muslim extremists around the world, diplomatic conflicts, and state-organized riots and attacks on Western embassies with several dead in Muslim countries.

After the drawing of the cartoon, Westergaard received numerous death threats and was a target of assassination attempts.

[5][6] Westergaard was introduced to cultural radicalism during high school in the 1950s, which he experienced as an "epiphany" and "a liberation from the religious subjugation of his childhood.

[5] In 2005, he drew a depiction of Muhammed wearing a bomb in a turban as part of the Prophet cartoons controversy.

On 12 February 2008, the Danish Security and Intelligence Service (PET) arrested three Muslims – two Tunisians and one Moroccan-born Dane – who were charged with planning to murder Westergaard.

"[12] On 1 January 2010, a 28-year-old Somali Muslim intruder armed with an axe and knife entered Westergaard's house and was subsequently shot and wounded by police.

[28][29] According to PET intelligence, the suspect is closely linked to the Somali Islamist insurgency group al-Shabaab, commonly considered a terrorist organization, as well as an al-Qaeda affiliate in East Africa.

[34] In 2010[35] Anwar al-Awlaki published an Al-Qaeda hit list in Inspire magazine, including three Jyllands-Posten staff members: Kurt Westergaard, Carsten Juste, and Flemming Rose, along with other figures claimed to have "insulted Islam," including Salman Rushdie, Ayaan Hirsi Ali and cartoonist Lars Vilks.

[36][37][38] The list was later expanded to include Stéphane "Charb" Charbonnier, who was murdered in a terror attack on Charlie Hebdo in Paris, along with 11 other people.