Denmark’s immigration minister has posted a screenshot of her iPad screensaver on Facebook showing a caricature of the Prophet Mohammad which outraged Muslims worldwide in 2006.
Inger Stoejberg posted the cartoon on Tuesday in response to a decision made by Skovgaard Museum to not include the drawing in a new exhibition about blasphemy since the Protestant Reformation.
The immigration minister wrote on Facebook that the cartoons demonstrate that Denmark is “a free country where opinions are challenged”.
The post went on to state: “We should be proud of the Muhammad cartoons. It is the museum’s own choice and they have their full right to do it, but I think it’s a shame”.
Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen said: “I have no comments but I’m happy to live in a country where you can have artists making bizarre pieces of art.”
Holger Nielsen of the opposition Socialist People’s Party urged people on Twitter to ignore Stoejberg.
In a statement, Skovgaard Museum said it had “deliberately chosen not to show the Muhammad drawings”, citing potential security risks.
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It said: “We would like to show that the debate about blasphemy and freedom of expression reaches far beyond the Muhammad crisis”.
In 2006, angry protests had erupted around the world over the offensive cartoons published by the Danish newspaper which mocked Prophet Muhammad.
The image posted on Monday by the minister was one of those cartoons.
