March 28 (Bloomberg) -- The Danish cartoonist behind a caricature of the prophet Muhammad that sparked riots two years ago will seek legal advice after the Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders used the image in a film linking the Koran to violence.

``My drawing shouldn't be connected with something I don't know about,'' Kurt Westergaard, who drew the cartoon of the prophet wearing a bomb in his turban, told broadcaster TV2 in a telephone interview. ``It was done as a protest against terrorism and shouldn't be used in a general campaign against Muslims.''

Wilders's 15-minute film, ``Fitna,'' features verses from the Koran alongside images of the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York in 2001 and on Madrid trains in 2004. The film was released on the Internet yesterday. Westergaard's whereabouts are unknown and he's been under police protection since receiving death threats for producing the cartoon.

Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen on March 19 called ``offensive'' comments by Wilders to Danish television in which he called the Koran a ``fascist'' book.

Denmark in 2006 was the target of violent protests across much of the Muslim world after the country's biggest newspaper, Jyllands-Posten, published 12 cartoons satirizing Islam. Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller called the ensuing wave of consumer boycotts and riots the worst foreign policy crisis Denmark had experienced since World War II.

``I, of course, want the right to criticize all religions, and I also defend Geert Wilders' right to make and show his film,'' Westergaard said. ``But he didn't ask me, and it's therefore for me a simple matter of copyright.''

To contact the reporters on this story: Tasneem Brogger in Copenhagen at tbrogger@bloomberg.net;

Last Updated: March 28, 2008 04:16 EDT