Muslim group sues over Muhammed cartoons in Denmark

Associated Press:

A group of 27 Danish Muslim organizations have filed a defamation lawsuit against the newspaper that first published the contentious Prophet Muhammed cartoons, their lawyer said Thursday.

The lawsuit was filed Wednesday, two weeks after Denmark's top prosecutor declined to press criminal charges, saying the drawings that sparked a firestorm in the Muslim world did not violate laws against racism or blasphemy.

Michael Christiani Havemann, a lawyer representing the Muslim groups, said lawsuit sought 100,000 kroner ($16,100) in damages from Jyllands-Posten Editor in Chief Carsten Juste and Culture Editor Flemming Rose, who supervised the cartoon project.

"We're seeking judgment for both the text and the drawings which were gratuitously defamatory and injurious," Havemann said.

The lawsuit was filed in the western city of Aarhus, where Jyllands-Posten is based.

The newspaper published the 12 cartoons on September 30 with an accompanying tests saying it was challenging a perceived self-censorship among artists afraid to offend Islam.

The newspaper apologized for offending Muslims after violent protests against Denmark erupted in the Middle East, but stood by its decision to print the drawings, citing the freedom of speech.

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