A Danish court has thrown out a defamation case against the newspaper that first published controversial cartoons of the prophet Muhammad. * The City Court in Aarhus today rejected a lawsuit brought by seven Danish Muslim groups claiming that the 12 drawings printed in Jyllands-Posten were intended to insult the prophet and make a mockery of Islam. While the cartoons may have offended some Muslims, there was no basis for claiming that the newspaper sought to belittle their faith, the court said. Carsten Juste, Jyllands-Posten’s editor-in-chief, hailed the decision as a victory for free speech. ‘Anything but a pure acquittal would have been a disaster for press freedom and the media’s possibility to fulfil its duties in a democratic society,’ he said. The Muslim groups behind the lawsuit said they would appeal. Jyllands-Posten published the cartoons on September 30, 2005 with an accompanying text saying it was challenging a perceived self-censorship among artists afraid to offend Islam. One of the cartoons showed Muhammad wearing a turban shaped like a bomb with a burning fuse. Another portrayed him holding a sword and a third pictured a middle-aged prophet standing in the desert with a walking […]