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Show of solidarity for Lars Vilks cartoon
LEADING papers have published a cartoon of Prophet Mohammed with the body of a dog by a caricaturist who was the target of an assassination plot.The Dagens Nyheter newspaper said it was publishing the cartoon of Muslims arrested in Ireland as a sign of solidarity with the artist Lars Vilks. "Lars Vilks is not alone in this conflict. A threat against him is, in the end, a threat against all Swedish people," Dagens Nyheter said in an editorial which reproduced the controversial cartoon. Irish police arrested seven Muslims suspected of conspiracy to murder Vilks because of his cartoon. The four men and three women were arrested yesterday in the towns of Cork and Waterford in an operation coordinated with US and European security agencies. Police said there was a plot to assassinate Vilks, who has a $100,000 bounty on his head from an Al Qaeda-linked group. Dagens Nyheter called on the Swedish state to give Vilks "all the protection he needs." It said authorities must take action "against an attack aiming at one of our most fundamental rights, freedom of expression." The Expressen tabloid also published the cartoon with a picture of Vilks. "Expressen decided to publish the drawing for two reasons: To allow readers to see the controversial work and to defend freedom of expression which is more and more threatened," it said in an editorial. "An open society must show that (it) will not give in to threats, that it is ready to fight for freedom of expression." The regional daily Nerikes Allehanda first published Vilks' satirical cartoon on Aug. 18, 2007, to illustrate an editorial on the importance of freedom of expression. It caused controversy in Sweden and abroad, and a group linked to Al Qaeda offered $100,000 for the killing of Vilks. Vilks said Tuesday he was not worried by the arrests in Ireland or the threats on his life. "I'm not shaking with fear, exactly," he told Swedish news agency TT. Posted by: tipper 2010-03-10 |
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