Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, the alleged leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq, has put a bounty of 100.000 dollars on the head of Swedish artist Lars Vilks, who made a drawing of the prophet Mohammed as a dog. The threat was broadcasted in a 30 minute taped speech.
”We are calling for the killing of the cartoonist Lars Vilks who allowed himself to insult our prophet (peace be upon him) and we promise a reward of 100.000 dollars during the generous month of the Ramadan to the man that kills this criminal,” said the alleged leader of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia.
The Swedish news agency TT reports that the editor of a local newspaper that published Vilks’ drawings also was threatened by Al Qaeda. The bounty on the editor’s head is 50.000 dollars.
Lars Vilks was confronted with the threats on a visit to Kassel, Germany.
”Only 100.000 dollars. I thought it was 200.000. Nice to know your worth,” he replied to Dagens Nyheter.
Vilks added that he feels confident that the Swedish authorities will take care of his security, and he called on moderate Muslims to come out in his support.
”I hope to get support from all the moderate Muslims that have to protest this development. They have to show unambigiously where they stand. This is no small group of extremists.”
Vilks is being asked if he thinks a round-about-dog of Mohammed was worth all the trouble and threats.
”Yes,” he answers, ”One has to test where things stand. And people have to join in to play down this kind of ideas. We cannot imagine a world in the West in which we have to adapt our norms to what Al Qaeda and other extremist groups are thinking.”
Two thumbs up for Mr. Vilks. He is doing just great.
The story took off in August when three art institutions in Sweden refused to put Vilks’ drawings on show referring to security concerns. It raised a debate about self censorship, and the newspaper Nerikes Allehanda published the drawings as part of the debate. The drawings were republished by other newspapers in Scandinavia including Jyllands-Posten. In Sweden the Iranian-Swedish magazine Mana has decided to publish the drawings in its next issue and the magazine is criticizing the publications and art institutions that declined to publish them for displaying a discriminating bias against Muslims.
”Obviously, they think Muslims can’t cope with this kind of images, they think Muslims are a security threat, this is crazy” the editor said.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member