AFP - Thursday, February 14

COPENHAGEN (AFP) - - Several Danish newspapers reprinted on Wednesday a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed that caused bloody riots in the Islamic world two years ago, a move that prompted Iran to angrily summon Denmark's ambassador.

Three of Denmark's biggest dailies were among 17 that published the cartoon, vowing to defend freedom of expression a day after police foiled a plot to murder the cartoonist.

The caricature, which featured the prophet's head with a turban that looked like a bomb with a lit fuse, was one of 12 cartoons published in September 2005 by the Jyllands-Posten daily.

The controversy sparked violent protests in a number of Muslim countries in January and February 2006 that culminated with the torching of Danish diplomatic offices in Damascus and Beirut and the death of dozens of people in Nigeria, Libya and Pakistan.

Iran showed its anger at the reprinting of the cartoon by summoning the Danish ambassador and voicing an official protest, the state run IRNA news agency said.

It carried a government statement saying the foreign ministry, "strongly condemned this (printing of the cartoon) and urged a serious confrontation against such insults and a prevention of any repetition."

On Tuesday, Danish police arrested three people, a Dane of Moroccan origin and two Tunisian nationals, suspected of plotting to kill the creator of the turban cartoon, Kurt Westergaard.

The Dane was due to be released after questioning but the two Tunisians -- who have lived in Denmark for more than seven years -- were to be expelled after being declared a threat to state security by Danish intelligence.

That decision prompted anger from the Danish Institute of Human Rights, and the mens' lawyers.

"It is profoundly troubling that the reasons for these expulsions will not be judged by an independent court," said Christoffer Badse, a lawyer at the state-funded institute.

"It is incomprehensible that we can release one of the three suspects in this affair, a Danish citizen, for lack of evidence, yet expel two foreigners without knowing the reason why or giving them the chance to defend themselves before a judge," Franz Wenzel, lawyer for one of the Tunisians, told Danish TV.

The newspapers that printed the cartoon on Wednesday said they did so to take a stand against self-censorship.

"Freedom of expression gives you the right to think, to speak and to draw what you like... no matter how many terrorist plots there are," conservative broadsheet Berlingske Tidende wrote in an editorial.

The newspaper -- which had not previously printed the caricature despite the massive controversy that engulfed Denmark for months in 2006 -- urged "the Danish media to stand united against fanaticism".

Tabloid Ekstra Bladet meanwhile published all 12 of the original cartoons.

The Danish press has unanimously condemned the alleged murder plot against Westergaard, who has lived in hiding for the past three months.

Even the centre-left newspaper of reference, Politiken, which was most critical of Jyllands-Posten's decision in 2005 to publish the cartoons, joined in the cries of condemnation.

The alleged murder plot was "deeply shocking and worrying" and "shows that there are fanatic Islamists who are ready to make good on their threats and there are people in this country who neither respect freedom of expression nor the law," an editorial read.

It said the media should stand behind Jyllands-Posten "when it is threatened with terrorism."

Members of Denmark's Muslim community have distanced themselves from the alleged murder plot, but opposed the publication of the cartoon on Wednesday.

Imam Walid Abdul Pedersen, a Protestant who converted to Islam, said: "It's not a good idea to reproduce it and the newspapers could have defended the cartoonist differently, without resorting to provocation."

"It's good to have a dialogue on freedom of expression, but you shouldn't seek out a confrontation from the start," he said.

He said it was possible the reprinting could prompt "negative reactions abroad."

Westergaard told tabloid BT on Wednesday that he never expected to end up the target of a death threat.

"With this drawing I wanted to show how fanatical Islamists or terrorists use religion as a kind of spiritual weapon. But naturally I never imagined these kinds of reactions," he said.

He said he considered himself an atheist, adding: "I feel that I am fighting a righteous fight to defend freedom of expression, which is under threat."