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COPENHAGEN: A Danish far-right party announced on Friday a campaign to republish cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad and shown to students by a French teacher before they were killed, but local media were hesitant.
“The murder of Samuel Paty triggered the campaign, we want to show our support for his family and for freedom of expression,” Pernille Vermund, leader of Nye Borgerlige (The New Right), told AFP.
The anti-immigration party holds four of the 179 seats in the Danish parliament.
On its website, the party launched a fundraising campaign to “advertise Charlie Hebdo cartoons in Danish newspapers.”
In Danish media circles, the initiative was met with mixed responses.
Poul Madsen, editor of the tabloid Extrabladet, said they would only decide on the ads when they saw them and “not before.”
“We condemn Muslim terrorism and support 100 percent of France, the murdered and freedom of expression, but always with careful consideration for our employees and those especially vulnerable,” Madsen posted on Twitter.
Vermund said she was “not entirely sure it would be possible” to publish the drawings.
“But as a politician, my obligation is that the development of society goes towards greater freedom of expression, not less,” he said.
In 2005, the Danish daily Jyllands-Posten published cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad, sparking widespread protests and anger among many Muslim communities, who are banned from depicting the prophet.
The French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, like other European newspapers, republished them in 2006 in defense of freedom of expression.
In 2015, the newspaper was the target of an extremist attack that killed 12 people, including journalists and cartoonists.
