In 2013, al-Qaeda published a "hit list" in which several public figures were named for immediate execution. Alongside high-profile names like Salman Rushdie, staff at the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten were included: Flemming Rose and Carsten Juste, editor and editor-in-chief, respectively. Rose had presided over a culture story in Jyllands-Posten which published readers' cartoon depictions of the Prophet Muhammad in 2005, intended as a statement of free expression against religious expectations. This story had sparked widespread controversy, and as editor-in-chief of the paper, Juste was likewise complicit.

"When I visit a mosque, I show my respect by taking off my shoes. I follow the customs, just as I do in a church, synagogue or other holy place. But if a believer demands that I, as a nonbeliever, observe his taboos in the public domain, he is not asking for my respect, but for my submission. And that is incompatible with a secular democracy." - Flemming Rose

One of the most notorious illustrations in the Jyllands-Posten story came from Kurt Westergaard, who drew the Prophet with a bomb in his turban. Unsurprisingly, he was also included on the hit list. On two separate occasions—first in 2008 and again in 2010—rage surrounding this cartoon led to attempts on his life.

"We will not apologize, because we live in Denmark under Danish law, and we have freedom of speech in this country. If we apologized, we would betray the generations who have fought for this right, and the moderate Muslims who are democratically minded." - Carsten Juste on Jyllands-Posten's publishing of the cartoons

Also listed was Stéphane "Charb" Charbonnier, publication director for Charlie Hebdo, another magazine which published images of the Prophet (including reprintings of the Jyllands-Posten cartoons). He would be tragically killed in 2015 in attacks on the magazine's offices.