Kurt Westergaard (born Kurt Vestergaard; 13 July 1935 – 14 July 2021) was a Danish cartoonist. In 2005 he drew a cartoon of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, wearing a bomb in his turban as a part of the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons, which triggered several assassinations and murders committed by Muslims around the world, diplomatic conflicts, and state-organized riots and attacks on Western embassies with several dead in Muslim countries. After the drawing of the cartoon, Westergaard received numerous death threats and was a target of assassination attempts. As a result, he was under constant police protection.
Westergaard was born on 13 July 1935 in the village of Døstrup, in the Mariagerfjord area of Jutland. He grew up in a conservative Christian family (Inner Mission) environment, going to Sunday school. Westergaard was introduced to cultural radicalism during high school in the 1950s, which he experienced as an "epiphany" and "a liberation from the religious subjugation of his childhood."
Westergaard was a trained schoolteacher, educated at Ranum Seminarium. After working as a teacher for some time, he enrolled at the University of Copenhagen to study psychology. He subsequently worked as a teacher for handicapped children and was a principal of a school in the Djursland area for the handicapped.

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