Sincetheir attempt to get Denmark's Jyllands-Posten prosecuted for hate crimes or blasphemy failed, a group of 27 Muslim organizations have now launched a defamation suit against the newspaper over cartoons the paper printed back in September.

An excerpt from the AP story on globeandmail.com:

Michael Christiani Havemann, a lawyer representing the Muslim groups, said lawsuit sought $16,100 in damages from Jyllands-Posten Editor in Chief Carsten Juste and Culture Editor Flemming Rose, who supervised the cartoon project.

“We're seeking judgment for both the text and the drawings which were gratuitously defamatory and injurious,” Mr. Havemann said.

The lawsuit was filed in the western city of Aarhus, where Jyllands-Posten is based. The court said it had received the lawsuit, but no date for a hearing had been set.

The newspaper published the 12 cartoons on Sept. 30, with an accompanying text saying it was challenging self-censorship among artists afraid to offend Islam. The drawings were later reprinted in other Western media, mostly in Europe, in the name of free speech and news value.

The lawsuit said the cartoons depict Muhammad “as belligerent, oppressing women, criminal, crazy and unintelligent, and a connection is made between the Prophet and war and terror.”

It said the drawings were published “solely to provoke and mock not only the Prophet Muhammad but also the Muslim population.”

Good luck to the plaintiffs, I say, but I can't see this going anywhere. You can't defame a group, and I  would be very surprised if Danish law allows the dead to be defamed.

The best way for Danish Muslims to make their points is in the political arena and by otherwise attempting to influence public opinion.

The issues they have over the cartoons can't be resolved in the legal arena.