Three Muslims have been arrested in Denmark for plotting to kill one of the dreaded cartoonists of blasphemy: Danes nab suspects in cartoonist plot.

COPENHAGEN, Denmark - Danish police said Tuesday they have arrested three people suspected of plotting to kill one of the 12 cartoonists behind the Prophet Muhammad drawings that sparked a deadly uproar in the Muslim world two years ago.

Two Tunisians and a Dane of Moroccan origin were arrested in pre-dawn raids in western Denmark, the police intelligence agency said. The Dane was suspected of violating Danish terror laws but likely would be released after questioning as the investigation continues, said Jakob Scharf, the head of the PET intelligence service. The two Tunisians would be expelled from Denmark, he said.

The agency did not mention which cartoonist was targeted. However, according to Jyllands-Posten, the Danish newspaper that first published the drawings on Sept. 30, 2005, the suspects were planning to kill its cartoonist Kurt Westergaard. “There were very concrete murder plans against Kurt Westergaard,” said Carsten Juste, the paper’s editor-in-chief.

Danish Muslim leaders are issuing veiled threats of violence, for arresting the plotters:

Kasem Ahmad, a spokesman for the Copenhagen-based Islamic Faith Community, a network of Muslim groups that spearheaded protests against the cartoons in Denmark, said he hoped Tuesday’s arrests would not rekindle the uproar.

“We urge Muslims to take it calmly,” he told the TV2 News network.

And look who’s publishing the dreaded cartoons! Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.