On February 12, 2008, Danish authorities arrested two Tunisian men on suspicion of plotting to murder Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard for drawing a caricature of the Prophet Muhammad, Westergaard drew one of the 12 Muhammad caricatures in the now infamous “Danish cartoons” that sparked riots around the world in 2006. The cartoons appeared in the Danish daily Jyllands-Posten. Islamic prohibits all images, favorable or not, of the Prophet Muhammad for fears of idolatry.

This past august, one of men simply left Denmark voluntarily while the other remained in custody. But after review for deportation, the 36-year old unidentified Tunisian was released this past Monday (October 20, 2008) after the Refugee Appeals Board ruled that he could not be deported given that he would most likely be abused in Tunisia.

“Under these circumstances, we had no reason to keep him in detention,” Hans-Viggo Jensen, head of the Danish police aliens department, told the Associated Press after the RAB’s decision.

The Tunisian will be allowed to stay in Denmark but without many of the rights of a Danish citizens. He will have no access to social security benefits, housing, or a right to work. He must also stay in contact with the police authorities regularly and if he leaves Denmark he will not be allowed to return.

Author’s Comment: Although there are problems of Islamophobia in the West, what this compassionate ruling toward a atrocious man proves is the decency of the West. Even though this man sought to kill a person for engaging in a fundamental freedom in the West, Danish authorities still thought about his well-being and have protected him from what would have been, no doubt, torture at the hands of the Tunisian authorities. If the Islamic fundamentalists living in the West find the region so intolerable, they should ask themselves why they are there and not back in their countries of origin. By the way, I am a Muslim among the almost unanimous segment of Muslims who live freedom and liberty.