(BBC) — A Danish newspaper has apologized for any offense caused when it reprinted a cartoon depicting the Prophet Muhammad with a bomb-shaped turban in 2008.

Politiken said it was apologizing as part of a settlement with Muslim groups in the Middle East and Australia.

Other Danish newspapers criticised Politiken for its move.

Twelve cartoons of Muhammad were initially published in 2006, sparking widespread protests by Muslims in various countries.

Politiken — and other papers — republished one in 2008 when police uncovered an alleged plot to kill cartoonist Kurt Westergaard.

Editor-in-chief Toeger Seidenfaden said on Friday: “We apologize to anyone who was offended by our decision to reprint the cartoon drawing.”

He told the Associated Press (AP) news agency that the paper still had the right to publish.

“We have the right to print Kurt Westergaard’s drawings, we have the right to print the original 12 drawings, we have the right to print all the caricatures in the world,” he said.

“We apologize for the offense which the reprint has caused. That is what we apologize for.”

The editor-in-chief of Jyllands-Posten, the paper which originally published the cartoons, was highly critical of Politiken.

Joern Mikkelse said: “Politiken’s pathetic prostrating before a Saudi lawyer takes the first prize in stupidity.”

In 2006 Jyllands-Posten apologized for the offense caused by the drawings, but other European media reprinted them.