A 54-year-old imam was found shot in the head in Strömsund in northwestern Sweden on Wednesday in what police have classified as attempted murder. Police received a call around 1:30pm on Wednesday afternoon that the man, identified by Sveriges Television (SVT) as Obydkhon Sobitkhony, had been found bullet shot with gun shot wounds.
"He was shot at least once in the head, but there may have been more shots. He was improving for awhile last night but during the day on Thursday certain complications came up which have made his condition worse," Östersund police detective Ted Persson told the local Östersunds Posten (ÖP) newspaper on Thursday.
Sobitkhony, who is known by the surname Nazarov, serves as a holy man in Strömsund, where he has lived since coming to Sweden in 2006 as a political refugee from Uzbekistan.
He is being treated at hospital in Umeå for what have been described as life threatening injuries.
According to SVT, a gun believed to be used in Wednesday's shooting was found near where Sobitkhony lay and around 30 officers participated in the preliminary investigation by combing the scene for clues and knocking on doors in the vicinity.
"The door knocking as yielded positive results thus far," Persson told the newspaper.
However, some people are alive only because it's illegal to kill them...
local police have made an appeal to the public for more information about the shooting.
Sobitkhony is a known critic of the regime in Uzbekistan and came to Sweden along with scores of other political refugees after a 2005 crackdown by Uzbek government troops in Andijan in which hundreds of protesters were killed, although the exact number of casualties remains in dispute.
At the time of the incident, known as the Andijan massacre, the Uzbek government claimed the demonstrations were organized by Islamic radicals.
In the wake of the influx of Uzbek refugees, Strömsund, a town of just over 4,000 residents, has seen a rise in hate crimes ranging from racist graffiti to the burning down of a mosque in the city in 2008.
According to SVT, there were threats against Sobitkhony but, police were unwilling to confirm or deny the existence of threats directed against the imam.
"However, some people are alive only because it's illegal to kill them...
there are threats against other Uzbeks who are currently in Strömsund," said Persson.
While local police are running the investigation, both Interpol and Swedish security service Säpo have been informed of the incident.
"For the moment, we don't have any suspects, but we do have some forensic evidence," Persson told ÖP.
Continued on Page 47
STOCKHOLM A Swedish artist who angered Muslims by depicting the Prophet Muhammad as a dog was pelted with eggs during a university lecture when he presented another drawing of Islams revered prophet, police and the artist said Wednesday.
Lars Vilks told The Associated Press that he was not harmed in Tuesdays attack at Karlstad University in central Sweden and that he continued his lecture on the limits of free speech after police evicted the protesters from the building.
Vilks, who has received numerous death threats from radical Islamists, said about a dozen people started yelling and hurling eggs at him when he presented a sketch showing Muhammad and 19th-century Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen at a beer factory.
They were just waiting for the right moment to go to attack, he told AP.
The 65-year-old artist said he made the drawing in 2006, inspired by the debate that year over 12 Danish newspaper cartoons of Muhammad, which sparked furious protests in Muslim countries.
Karlstad police spokesman Per Strom said the attackers had been identified and the incident was being investigated, but no arrests have been made.
So the attackers are identified and there is video of their attack, but no arrests. I'm guessing no prosecutions. I'm guessing the police want Vilks dead.
Though there was a police presence at the lecture, the audience had not been searched because such measures must be announced in advance, Strom said.
So announce it...
Vilks has faced a string of threats and violence over his more well-known drawing of Muhammad as a dog in 2007. In 2010, he was forced to abandon a lecture at another Swedish university when protesters rushed toward the stage and scuffled with police.
Last year, a woman from Pennsylvania pleaded guilty in a plot to try to kill Vilks, and a year earlier two brothers were jailed for trying to burn down his house in southern Sweden.
A woman from Pennsylvania. Must have been Amish. And the brothers must have been Lutherans...
Vilks said he wont be deterred from making public appearances.
Ive experienced this so much now. It is what it is. You have to expect these things, he said. I have good protection and it works the way it should.
Continued on Page 47
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/24/2012 00:00 ||
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We add the cartoon to remember what kind of stupidity the idiots are getting nasty about.
Controversial Swedish artist Lars Vilks was forced to dodge eggs thrown by angry audience members while giving a lecture about his Mohammad cartoons and free expression at the University of Karlstad on Tuesday.
o Vilks murder plot suspects acquitted (20 Jan 12)
o Three charged for plot to murder Lars Vilks (6 Dec 11)
o 'Jihad Jane' ally admits to Vilks murder plot (9 Mar 11)
"They were also shouting some slogans. We removed them as well as two people who had started shouting back at the 15 (egg throwers). At the time it was a bit tumultuous but the commotion only lasted for about a minute," said Tommy Lindh of the local police to news agency TT.
Vilks was lecturing on freedom of speech at the university on Tuesday evening at the invitation of the university's association of international affairs (Utrikespolitiska föreningen).
The local Islamic Culture Association (Islamiska kulturföreningen) and Karlstad Young Moslems (Unga muslimer i Karlstad) had called for a boycott of the lecture earlier in the day, writing in a statement that Vilks "abuses the freedom of speech that we all enjoy and uses it in such a way as to create tension sin society"
Vilks began his lecture bringing up examples of artists who have challenged the boundaries of freedom of speech in different ways, several of whom have been reported to the police and convicted.
Among these was an exhibition on pornographic images of children, Malmö street artist Dan Park's poster of a black man in chains with the text "Our Negro slave has run away", Vilks's own caricature of the prophet Muhammed as a dog and Jesus as a paedophile, according to a university statement.
A short while into the lecture, fifteen people suddenly rose and began throwing eggs at Vilks. Two other members of the audience reacted against the attack and started shouting at the egg-throwers.
However, Caliphornia hasn't yet slid into the ocean, no matter how hard it's tried... coppers present at the speech were quickly able to remove the disturbing elements from the auditorium and the lecture could continue.
According to the police, no one has been locked away as of yet, nor was Vilks hit by any of the eggs thrown by the irate members of the audience as he was rushed off stage.
"We have yet to decide whether or not a criminal act has been committed. Vilks might also report the incident himself," said Lindh to Sveriges Television (SVT).
So the attackers are identified and there is video of their attack, but no arrests. I'm guessing no prosecutions. I'm guessing the police want Vilks dead.
I'm sure they don't want any such thing. But it certainly would make things calmer if he weren't about.
"Will no one rid us of this meddlesome cartoonist?"
The university association for international affairs were pleased with the visit, despite the attack.
"It is important that we are able to discuss questions about freedom of speech and democracy at the university. We regret that this occurred but we are happy that we could carry on," said Mazlom Dogan of the association in a statement.
Police couldn't elaborate on what the egg throwers had been chanting as they staged their attack.
Allah Ackbar maybe?
But according to Lindh the officers who were present are likely to have heard what was being shouted.
Vilks told local paper Nya Wermlands Tidningen (NWT) that while no one should accept these kind of attacks, they are hard to avoid if one wants to be able to make everyone welcome to a public event.
Perhaps such people should not be made welcome, then.
Also, it isn't the first time he has encountered threatening behaviour.
Ah. A serial surrender monkey.
"I have been around the block before," Vilks said to NWT.
So he's proud of it?
At the end of the lecture many in the audience wanted to know what reactions Vilks wanted to get from his art and whose responsibility these reactions were.
"Insults are part of democratic society. If we begin censoring ourselves it will mean undermining freedom of speech in the long run. I don't think that the problem is that artists are too provocative but that we are not provocative enough," said Vilks in answer to their questions.
According to NWT, police have identified several of the attackers and have reported the incident as assault and disturbing a public assembly.
#1
There is a scene in the movie Apocalypse Now! that dramatizes the dangers inherent in ignoring small provocations.
As the boat travels a narrows, it is suddenly deluged by blunt arrows. At first frightened, the crew soon realizes that the arrows are blunt, and drop their guard. Then their chief is impaled by a spear thrown by one of the attackers.
This is the "lone gunman in a nonviolent mob" approach. The mob likely does not know that someone is using them as a distraction to kill, but they provide good concealment for a real attack to be made.
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A 54-year-old imam was found shot in the head in Strömsund in northwestern Sweden on Wednesday in what police have classified as attempted murder. Police received a call around 1:30pm on Wednesday afternoon that the man, identified by Sveriges Television (SVT) as 
STOCKHOLM A Swedish artist who angered Muslims by depicting the Prophet Muhammad as a dog was pelted with eggs during a university lecture when he presented another drawing of Islams revered prophet, police and the artist said Wednesday.
