 One artist agreed to assist anonymously ; he said that he was afraid for his and his family 's safety . According to Bluitgen , one artist declined due to the murder in Amsterdam of the film director Theo van Gogh the year before ; another cited the attack in October 2004 on a lecturer at the Carsten Niebuhr Institute at the University of Copenhagen ; he was assaulted by five assailants who opposed his reading of the Qur 'an to non @-@ Muslims during a lecture . The story gained some traction , and the major Danish newspapers reported the story the following day . 
