DENMARK:Denmark's national library is to risk reopening an international political storm by housing the cartoon images of the prophet Muhammad which provoked violent convulsions throughout the Islamic world two years ago.
The Royal Library in Copenhagen has declared the drawings to be of historic value and is trying to acquire them for "preservation purposes". It has agreed to take possession of the caricatures on behalf of the Museum of Danish Cartoon Art.
Negotiations with the artists behind the 12 cartoons are said to be at an advanced stage. Several have agreed to donate the works for nothing but the museum may have to buy some of them.
About 100 people died in riots across the Muslim world as protests spread after publication of the cartoons - one of which depicted Muhammad with a bomb in his turban - in numerous western newspapers in 2006. The disturbances led to Denmark's embassy in Damascus being burned and diplomatic missions in several other Muslim countries being attacked. The cartoons originally appeared in the Danish Jyllands-Posten newspaper in 2005.
Jytte Kjaergaard, a spokeswoman for the library, said the cartoons were unlikely to be displayed publicly and insisted that the decision was not intended to be controversial. "We are not interested in an exhibition, we are interested in them being kept safe for future generations because they have created history in Denmark," she said. "This is the obvious place to keep them because we have all the security measures in place.