Muhammad Cartoonist Retires, Citing Old Age, Not Murder Threats

COPENHAGEN, Denmark -- The Danish cartoonist who caricatured the Prophet Muhammad says he is quitting because he is getting old.

Kurt Westergaard says "one has to stop at some point." He says he has been working since the age of 23, first as a teacher and then as an artist. He turns 75 on July 13.

Westergaard says he hopes his retirement might help "lower the terror threat" against the Jyllands-Posten newspaper where he has been working for the past 27 years.

Monday's announcement came four years after the Muhammad cartoons by Westergaard and 11 other artists sparked outrage in the Muslim world causing at least three terror attempts against Westergaard or his newspaper.