Jyllands-POosten, Denmark's largest circulation daily, published the cartoons after a writer complained that nobody dared illustrate his book about Mohammed.
COPENHAGEN: After weeks of brewing controversy, the chief editor of a Danish newspaper on Monday apologised for publishing caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed that have triggered a boycott of Danish products across the Muslim world and generated threats to Nordic citizens abroad.
"In our opinion, the 12 drawings were not intended to be offensive, nor were they at variance with Danish law, but they have indisputably offended many Muslims, for which we apologise," Carsten Juste said in a statement on the Jyllands-Posten's web site.
The cartoons, one of which depicts the Prophet Mohammed wearing a turban shaped as a bomb, were first published by Jyllands Posten in September 2005, and the debate was re-ignited last week when a Norwegian Christian magazine republished the illustrations.
The cartoons, penned by 12 different illustrators, ranged from the cliché of a terrorist with a curved sword and bombs in his turban, to cartoonist Lars Refn's contribution where a pupil wrote - in Arabic - on a black board, that "Jyllands-Posten's staff are a bunch of reactionary provocateurs".
Jyllands-POosten, Denmark's largest circulation daily, published the cartoons after a writer complained that nobody dared illustrate his book about Mohammed.
The cartoons are considered blasphemous in Islam, which forbids depictions of the Prophet Mohammed.
Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Libya have withdrawn their ambassadors from Copenhagen to protest the cartoons.
The controversy has triggered calls for a boycott of Danish products. Egypt's Federation of Chambers of Commerce has launched a boycott and plans to urge organisations in the maritime transport sector to halt their dealings with shipping lines that transport Danish goods.
Saudi and Kuwaiti supermarkets, along with the UAE, have started to pull Danish products off their shelves.
The boycott call already prompted the Danish food company Arla, which produces a range of dairy products for sale in the Arabic region, to close a dairy in the Saudi city of Riyadh that employs 800 people, spokeswoman Astrid Gade Nielsen told Ritzau.
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