Free Republic

A Swedish artist who survived two murder attempts after drawing a cartoon of the Muslim Prophet Mohammed has died in a horror car crash. Lars Vilks, 75, was killed Sunday when the police car he was traveling in veered onto the wrong side of the road and collided with a truck. Both vehicles caught fire and the truck driver, 45, was taken to hospital with serious injuries. The two police officers who were tasked with protecting Mr Vilks also died, according Swedish news outlet Expressen. The crash is being investigated by the special prosecutor's office. The collision occurred just before...

Danish police have said three officers were shot and wounded at blasphemy debate in Copenhagen where the French ambassador was speaking. Two gunmen are said to be still at large. Reports say up to 40 shots were fired outside the venue in the Danish capital. Controversial Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks, who has drawn caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad, was also present at the debate. Shortly after the attack, a message appeared on the Twitter feed of French ambassador Francois Zimeray saying he was unharmed. Lars Vilks stoked controversy in 2007 by drawing pictures of the Prophet Muhammad dressed as a...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQQAWrIvBoI&feature=related

STOCKHOLM—The home of a Swedish artist who once drew a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad as a dog has been hit by a suspected arson attack, police said Saturday. Lars Vilks, who lives in Nyhamnslage in southern Sweden, was not at home during the attack late Friday night and no one was reported injured. It was the latest in a week of attacks on the 53-year-old cartoonist, who was assaulted Tuesday by a man while he lectured at a university and saw his Web site apparently attacked by hacker on Wednesday. Police were alerted just before noon Saturday, as people...

What happens when you appease those who use violence to silence those they don't agree with? You allow them to shape the debate. You allow them to win and you silence freedom of speech: By constantly buckling in to the slightest Muslim displeasure — whether by altering films, removing museum art, or canceling book launches — the West has perpetuated a vicious cycle wherein Muslim sensitivities are ever heightened and outraged at the slightest slight, and Western freedoms of expression are correspondingly diminished and trampled upon. What’s worse, such self-imposed censorship falls right into the hands of homegrown Islamists actively...

STOCKHOLM – A Swedish artist who angered Muslims by depicting the Prophet Muhammad as a dog was assaulted Tuesday as furious protesters interrupted his university lecture about the limits of free speech. Lars Vilks told The Associated Press a man leaped from the front row and head-butted him as he was delivering his lecture at Uppsala University, breaking Vilks' glasses but leaving him uninjured. Police later said the attacker was stopped before he could reach Vilks and that the artist may have bumped into plain-clothes officers who briskly evacuated him from the room. Three people were detained, but it wasn't...

Sweden's largest direct marketing company has joined the national postal service in refusing to distribute a political newspaper containing a caricature of the Muslim prophet Muhammad. Earlier this week Posten decided not to distribute SD-Kuriren - a newspaper produced by the far-right Sweden Democrats - in Svedala in southern Sweden. As the newspaper contained a reproduction of Lars Vilks's controversial illustration of Muhammad as a dog, the postal service said that to distribute the publication would constitute a security risk. "We want to protect the safety of our mail carriers. This illustration has provoked reactions that have led to death...

What actually happened when a Swedish newspaper published a picture of the prophet Mohammed as a dog? The Swedish Emergency Management Agency wants to find out, and is to give funding to Örebro University to look at reaction to the controversial publication. The university will also compare the reactions around the world to what happened following a similar publication by a Danish newspaper 2 years ago, but which reached much larger proportions. And the artist that first drew the pictures of Mohammed is taking his own look back at the controversy, by writing a musical about the events. Lars Vilks...

HOGANAS, Sweden (CNN) -- Swedish artist Lars Vilks... 1 of 3 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. 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.http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/10/16/artist.controversy/?iref=mpstoryview

[Tanslation ScaniaBoy] A hacker war between Turkey and Sweden has erupted. Last week Turkish hackers attacked thousands of Swedish sites on the Internet, and this weekend Swedish hackers revenged by publishing pornographic pictures of the prophet Muhammed. The Turkish attacks started several weeks ago. Swedish Web-hotels were attacked and thousands of home-pages were erased, and sometimes the attackers left political messages. On Saturday the Swedish hackers hit back. They had localised a Turkish discussion forum where some of the hackers were registred. The database with names and passwords for all the members to the site was stolen, Per Hellqvist, head...

He's offended Muslims worldwide and al-Qaida wants him dead but Swedish artist Lars Vilks said Monday he has no regrets about portraying the Prophet Muhammad as a dog. Vilks, 61, told The Associated Press he even plans to convert the row over his prophet drawings into a musical, with prominent roles depicting Iran's president, Sweden's prime minister and al-Qaida terrorists.