Tag Archives: lars vilks

Everybody Draw Mohammed Day

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May 20th (today) is Everybody Draw Mohammed Day.  The event was organized in response to the threats artists are receiving for depictions of Mohammed.  The catalyst was the recent threats to Trey Parker and Matt Stone for their attempt to depict Mohammed in the television show South Park.  The episode was later censored.  Numerous people came to their defense and the general defense of free speech.

The original creator of the event has stepped back from it causing it to be an non-organized day of protest that has gone viral.  The cause has been championed by folks like Andrew Sullivan, Dan Savage, and the libertarian Reason magazine promoting it.

The reactions have been strong to this and many feel this will only stoke anti-Islamic sentiments.  Pakistan shut down access to Facebook because of it.  The house of a Swedish artist Lars Vilks was recently the subject of an arson attack and this comes on the heals after an assault against him.  Those to attacks were on top of a murder plot by the American dubbed “Jihad Jane.” These events have caused Vilks to go into hiding.  Two individuals age 21 and 19 were arrested in connection with the arson attack.

If you participate in this event and would like us to display your work, please email us at graphicpolicy (at) gmail.com.

Muhammad Cartoonist Assaulted

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Swedish artist Lars Vilks was assaulted Tuesday as protesters interrupted his lecture about the limits of free speech.  Vilks first angered the Muslim community for his 2007 cartoons of Muhammad as a dog.  On Tuesday at a lecture at Uppsala University the uproar occurred after he showed an Iranian film that depicts the Prophet entering a gay bar.

A man jumped from the front row and head-butted Vilks breaking his glasses but leaving him uninjured.  Police were forced to detain or pepper-spray some unruly members of the crowd as other protesters yelled “Allahu Akbar” – “God is great.”

Depictions of Muhammad and the reaction from some in the Muslim community has been a contentious issue as threats of violence have resulted and have some times muzzled free speech.

  • Last month, Comedy Central edited a South Park episode in response to threats by a New York-based Muslim group Revolution Muslim.
  • Earlier this year, the Metropolitan Museum of Art pulled a collection of art of Muhammad to avoid offending Muslims.
  • Brandeis University professor Jytte Klausen says that Yale University Press prohibited her from using several 2005 Danish newspaper caricatures depicting Muhammad with a bomb on his head in her book “The Cartoons That Shook the World.”
  • Vilks was recently the target of a plot to kill him by the American dubbed Jihad Jane.

Vilks feels this is a point of principle and even though he sleeps with an ax beside his bed and his house is booby trapped, he continues to stand for free speech.

“This must be carried through. You cannot allow it to be stopped,” he told the Associated Press, saying he wouldn’t hesitate to give the address again.

Unfortunately it seems this extremism is having an effect as Comedy Central edited the South Park episode and Uppsala University said they would “not likely” invite Vilks again because of the incident even though Vilks would like to give the lecture a second time.

The irony that is some accept the threats under the guise of free speech and political correctness, while condemning those that offend, thus resulting in censorship.

Jihad Jane’s Partner Pleads Not Guilty

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Jamie Paulin-Ramirez pleaded not guilty at her arraignment Wednesday in federal court in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  She faces federal charges that she supported terrorists overseas.  She was arrested in Ireland in March in a plot to commit murder.

Paulin-Ramirez is accused of being involved in the plot to kill cartoonist Lars Vilks a Swedish artist vilified by Muslims because of his drawings of the Prophet Muhammad.

The other woman Colleen R. LaRose, dubbed Jihad Jane, is also charged with conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists in the U.S. indictment.

Jeremy Ibrahim, Paulin-Ramirez’s lawyer informed the court the accused is pregnant.  She returned to the U.S. to face the charges with her 6 year old son who is in custody of Pennsylvania Child Services.

Second Woman Questioned in Swedish Cartoonist Plot

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The Wall Street Journal said a Colorado was arrested and then released as part of an investigation into the conspiracy to murder a Swedish cartoonist.  This is the second American woman who is of interest in this plot.

Irish police said. Sgt. Declan Obyrne told CNN that Jamie Paulin-Ramirez was released from Thomastown Garda Police Station on Saturday afternoon.  Obyrne said Paulin-Ramirez has not been charged and that she is not out on bail.

Earlier this week a suburban Philadelphia woman, Colleen R. LaRose who called herself Jihad Jane, was arrested in a plot to murder cartoonist Lars Vilks a Swedish artist vilified by Muslims because of his drawings of the Prophet Muhammad.

Jihad Jane’s Target Was Swedish Cartoonist

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Colleen R. LaRose, a suburban Philadelphia woman who called herself Jihad Jane online has been charged with using the Internet to recruit jihadist fighters and help terrorists overseas.

The blond hair, blue eyed woman’s goal was to kill cartoonist Lars Vilks a Swedish artist vilified by Muslims because of his drawings of the Prophet Muhammad.  This is just the latest string of plots to kill the cartoonist.  In September 2007, al-Qaeda leaders set a price on Vilks’ head.

His “alleged crime” was to draw a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammad as a “roundabout dog”, a type of street installation popular in Sweden where sculptures are often placed in the middle of roundabaouts.

LaRose has been in custody since Oct. 15. She was in court the next day but didn’t enter a plea.  So, it’s been about five months and this is just getting into the news.