Dec 29 (Reuters) - Police on Wednesday arrested five people suspected of planning to attack the Danish daily Jyllands-Posten, which outraged Muslims with cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad.
Here is a timeline of events:
Sept. 30, 2005 – Jyllands-Posten publishes the 12 cartoons by various artists, most of which depict the Prophet. The cartoons trigger protests by Danish Muslims, but attract little attention elsewhere.
In the following weeks, dozens of papers in Europe and elsewhere, including Norway’s Magazinet, reprint the cartoons.
Jan. 30 – Jyllands-Posten issues an apology.
Feb. 4 – Thousands of protesters set fire to the Danish and Norwegian embassies in Damascus. The Danish and Norwegian embassies in Beirut are attacked the next day. Lebanese interior minister Hassan al-Sabaa resigns.
Feb. 10 – Vebjoern Selbekk, editor of Magazinet, apologises for publishing the cartoons. Protests continue as a Danish and an American flag are burned at the Danish embassy in Caracas.
In total, over 50 people are killed in the various protests.
Oct. 26 – A Danish court rules in favour of Jyllands-Posten after seven Danish Muslim organisations accused it of libel, saying the images implied that all Muslims were terrorists.
July-August 2007 – Drawings by Lars Vilks are published depicting the Prophet Mohammad with the body of a dog. A number of Muslim countries condemn the drawings and make official protests.
Feb. 12, 2008 – Police arrest two Tunisians and a Dane of Moroccan descent in Denmark for planning to kill Kurt Westergaard, who drew the cartoon that caused most offence, showing the Prophet with a bomb for a turban.
Feb. 13 – Danish newspapers reprint one of the drawings in protest at the plot. The next day, Islamist students burn the Danish flag in southern Pakistan, chanting "Death to the cartoonist!".
October 2009 – U.S. authorities arrest the American David Headley and the Pakistani-born Canadian businessman Tahawwur Hussain Rana on suspicion of plotting an attack on Jyllands-Posten.
Jan. 1, 2010 – Westergaard escapes an attack by a Somali man armed with an axe in his home at Aarhus.
May – Attackers try to set fire to Westergaard’s home
Sept. 8 – German Chancellor Angela Merkel awards Westergaard the M100 prize, dedicated, in 2010, to the freedom of the press.
Sept. 11 – A man sets off a small explosion in a Copenhagen hotel. Police said they have found a map with the address of Jyllands-Posten’s headquarters in Aarhus circled among the man’s belongings. Sept. 28 – Norway says that two men held there have admitted planning bomb attacks. One of the men, Shawan Sadek Saeed Bujak, an Iraqi Kurd, has confessed to plotting to attack Jyllands-Posten.
Sept. 29 – Flemming Rose, editor of Jyllands-Posten in 2005, releases a book that reprints the pictures and warns of a "tyranny of silence" — also the title of the book.
— Danish Foreign Minister Lene Espersen meets 17 ambassadors from Muslim countries as part of efforts to prevent any new cartoon crisis and foster understanding.
Dec. 11 – A car blows up in Sweden’s capital, Stockholm, in a busy shopping area, followed by a second blast nearby that kills the bomber, Taymour Abdulwahab, and injures two people.
— The blasts follow an emailed threat referring to Sweden’s troops in Afghanistan and to Vilks’s cartoon of the Prophet.
Dec. 29 – Police in Sweden and Denmark arrest five people on suspicion of planning to attack Jyllands-Posten offices in Copenhagen to "kill as many as possible of those around". They find a machine gun and ammunition.
