Oh Ma Gawd

The man, who was armed with a knife, had “close ties to the Somali terror organization al-Shabaab as well as to al-Qaeda leaders in East Africa, and is suspected of being involved in terror-related activities in East Africa,” police said.

Danish police shot and wounded a 27-year-old man trying to enter the Aarhus home of Kurt Westergaard, who drew controversial cartoons of Islam’s prophet Mohammed, Danish media reported

Westergaard remains a potential target for extremists nearly five years after he drew a caricature of the Prophet Muhammad along with 11 other Danish cartoonists that were printed in the Jyllands-Posten newspaper. Since Westergaard’s cartoon is viewed the most provocative, he is the only of the twelve to live under round-the-clock protection.

The Jyllands-Posten had asked Danish cartoonists to draw Muhammad as a challenge to a perceived self-censorship, not to insult Muslims. Still, Danish and other Western embassies in several Muslim countries were torched a few months later in 2006 by angry protesters who felt the cartoons had profoundly insulted Islam.

Islamic law generally opposes any depiction of the prophet, even favorable, for fear it could lead to idolatry.

The Somali man had won an asylum case and received a residency permit to stay in Denmark, Scharf said, declaring the Friday attack “terror related.”

“The arrested man has, according to PET’s information, close relations to the Somali terrorist group al-Shabab and al-Qaida leaders in eastern Africa,” Scharf said. “(The attack) again confirms the terror threat that is directed at Denmark and against the cartoonist Kurt Westergaard in particular.”

Scharf said the man is suspected of having been involved in terror-related activities in east Africa and had been under PET’s surveillance but not in connection with Westergaard.

Westergaard could not be reached for comment. However, he told his employer, the Jyllands-Posten, that the assailant shouted “Revenge!” and “Blood!” as he tried to enter the bathroom where Westergaard and the child had sought shelter.

“My grandchild did fine,” Westergaard said, according to the newspaper’s Web site. “It was scary. It was close. Really close. But we did it.”

Westergaard has received previous death threats and was the subject of an alleged assassination plot.

In October, terror charges were brought against two Chicago men who planned to kill Westergaard and newspaper’s former cultural editor. That trial has not yet begun.

In 2008, Danish police arrested two Tunisian men suspected of plotting to kill Westergaard. Neither suspect was prosecuted. One was deported and the other was released Monday after an immigration board rejected PET’s efforts to expel him from Denmark.

Throughout the crisis, then-Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen distanced himself from the cartoons but resisted calls to apologize for them, citing freedom of speech and saying his government could not be held responsible for the actions of Denmark’s press.

An umbrella organization for moderate Muslims in Denmark condemned the Friday attack.

“The Danish Muslim Union strongly distances itself from the attack and any kind of extremism that leads to such acts,” the group said in a statement.