Remember the artist in Denmark that drew Mohammed that received death threats from all over the world and prompted some publications to pull it and apologize? Swedish artist Lars Vilks has done basically the same thing but is taking a stand for his artistic expression, but he’s making sure to look under his car for bombs now since Al Qaeda has put a $100,000 price on his head and offered an extra $50,000 for anyone that murders him by slitting his throat. That’s one high-priced cartoon. His website is at http://www.vilks.net. Unfortunately it’s all in Swedish and I haven’t bothered to run it through babelfish yet so am getting most of this secondhand. He does have some depictions of Mohammed over there as well as other religious figures if you are interested in checking them out.
Vilks has been a controversial artist in Sweden for more than thirty years and his crude sketched caricature of Mohammed as a dog was a calculated move and he wanted to get a reaction. That he has certainly gotten. He receives constant death threats, and although he still works at home during the day he has to go to a safe house at night. Police have asked him to abandon his home completely to protect him from people such as the Swedish woman known as Amatullah who says that she hopes she can make good on the Al Qaeda threat and slaughter Vilks like a lamb. She has apparently already been fined for making death threats and claims that she will never stop taunting him.
I guess Lars Vilks should be glad he’s not living in Bangladesh where they have detained a cartoonist for offending Islam by drawing a caricature of Mohammed as a cat. I have to tell you, my cat is extremely offended and thinks that his eyes should be clawed out for offending catkind everywhere.
You can see the drawing he did of Mohammed’s head on a dog’s body. Since Muslim’s view dogs as being unclean I can see why they might be slightly aghast. Big hairy deal. If you don’t like it, don’t look at it. There are plenty of offensive things that we see every day, from stuff like the infamous Piss Christ to caricatures of the Pope along with plenty of political commentary.
Stuff like that get’s everyone’s panties in a twist and there is plenty of banter thrown around but the only time I ever hear of hundreds and thousands of death threats are when Muslims are involved, which just goes to show how truly primitive and barbaric the mainstream religion is. If it were just far removed wings of the religion we wouldn’t see such impact but since the rest of Islam accepts their control that makes them the mainstream.
What I find really interesting is that most of us laugh and think just as I have said “God, what barbarians” and we go about our daily business thinking we are above those assholes. If that were the case then why under Chapter 272 of it’s general laws is section 36 “Whoever wilfully blasphemes the holy name of God by denying, cursing or contumeliously reproaching God, his creation, government or final judging of the world, or by cursing or contumeliously reproaching Jesus Christ or the Holy Ghost, or by cursing or contumeliously reproaching or exposing to contempt and ridicule, the holy word of God contained in the holy scriptures shall be punished by imprisonment in jail for not more than one year or by a fine of not more than three hundred dollars, and may also be bound to good behavior.” Perhaps Muslims aren’t the only intolerant ones…
