Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard’s illustration of the Prophet Muhammad with a ticking bomb in his turban was part of a collection that sparked violent protests in Muslim nations around the world in 2005 and ignited the most controversial freedom-of-speech debate in modern history.

Muslim and non-Muslim opponents of the cartoons lambasted the drawings as racist, offensive, and Islamophobic. Most Western and American media outlets refused to reprint or show them for fear of causing even more widespread violence. The editor of the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten in which they were originally published got a lot of press attention, but the actual cartoonists who participated in the contest were given far less scrutiny.

Mr. Westergaard is 73 years old. He has lived under 24/7 police and Danish Secret Service protection since his cartoon was published, and security services broke up a terror plot to kill him earlier this year. His home has been transformed into a fortress. He was recently indicted by the prosecutor general in Amman, Jordan, to face blasphemy charges.

Most people who followed the controversy would probably assume that the Danish cartoonists that participated in the contest are anti-Islamic bigots. Yet this Spiegel interview with Kurt Westergaard defies that stereotype.

It paints a picture of a man that is calm, reasonable, and completely without malice. When asked how he would defend himself in front of a Jordanian court, Westergaard had this answer:

Westergaard: I would try to explain that the cartoon was not aimed at Islam as a whole but aimed at the terrorists, who use part of Islam as their spiritual ammunition. You could also say that the terrorists have taken the Prophet as their hostage.

He says that the controversy over his cartoon is all a big “misunderstanding,” but recognizes that it is in the interest of some world leaders to maintain the prevailing “anti-Islamic” narrative about his drawing.

Asked if he considers himself a “martyr for press freedom,” Westergaard said he did not:

All the police protection and the fact that my house has been transformed into a fortress means I feel rather safe. I have the best cooperation with the Danish Secret Service. It is possible to live a very good life, anyway. And I have one advantage: I am 73 years old. At this age, you are not so afraid anymore.

Saying that “I don’t allow fanatics to intimidate me,” Westergaard also noted the disagreements between himself and controversial filmmaker Geert Wilders, whose (apologetically) anti-Islamic movie “Fitna” was made nearby in the Netherlands.

Westergaard: [Wilders] contacted me, in fact, after I complained publicly that he had abused my cartoon in his film. So we agreed that he pay me a kind of compensation, and he has removed the cartoon from the movie. I have no problems with him, but I don’t share his view.

Surprise: Westergaard is hardly the anti-Islamic zealot that some might have assumed.

And finally:

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Had you known then what you know now — given all that has happened to you — would you have published that cartoon?

Westergaard: I have also been thinking a lot about that question. Yes, I am quite convinced that I would.