Lamb to the Slaughter
He’s kind of a putz, but his heart’s in the right place. [See Aunt Agatha’s post above and Allahpundit’s post here.]
Al Qaeda has put a $100,000 price on his head and offered an extra $50,000 for anyone who murders him by slitting his throat after the eccentric artist and sculptor drew a cartoon depicting the Prophet Mohammed as a dog.
“I don’t think it should not be a problem to insult a religion, because it should be possible to insult all religions in a democratic way, ” says Vilks from his home in rural Sweden.
“If you insult one, then you should insult the other ones.”
…
Vilks, a self-described atheist, points out he’s an equal opportunity offender who in the past sketched a depiction of Jesus as a pedophile.
…
Vilks, who has been a controversial artist for more than three decades in Sweden, says his drawing was a calculated move, and he wanted it to illicit a reaction.
I might prefer he had made a serious point, rather than just taunt Muslims—not that there’s anything wrong with that:
One Swedish Muslim woman who lives just an hour-and-a-half drive from Vilks said she hopes to make good on the al Qaeda threat and slaughter Vilks like a lamb.
“I can do this in the name of Allah, and I will not fail. I could slaughter him in the name of Allah,” says the woman who identified herself only as Amatullah.
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As he sits at his computer, his phone buzzes with a text message. Another death threat has just come in, this one from Pakistan.
“I will kill you, you son a bitch,” he reads.
You probably will, and Europe will probably shrug and move on.
L said,
October 16, 2007 @ 2:45 pm
The thing with the dog is the silly craze in Sweden this last year to put one at the center of your local roundabout and then some, a ”rondellhund”. Perhaps it was extra humiliating to Swedish muslims he was able to mask the provocation as a contemporary collage.