EXCLUSIVE OUR INTERVIEW w/LARS Vilks

Lars Vilks DREW a cartoon of a dog with Mohamed's head.

An Internet audio message said to be from al-Qaida in Iraq offered a $100,000 reward for killing a Swedish artist who caricatured the Prophet Mohammed.
The speaker, who said he was Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, the head of the terrorist group, promised to increase the reward to $150,000 if Lars Vilks is slaughtered like a lamb, the BBC reported.
Our interview:

G: We know you from a death threat in a password protected jahidist web site
and gave you warning before the reward was offered.

G: What did you think when you got our warning.

L: When I got it I was lecturing for a group of people in the Schloss Friedrichhöhe in Kassel. It was not easy to understand how serious it was. The next day I was informed by the Swedish police that they together with the Swedish Secret Police considered the threat as “very serious”. They suggested that I should go underground. But I didn’t.

G: How are you doing?

L: I am doing quite well. Checking my car for bombs every day and keeping my eyes open. Otherwise I can do my regular work.

G: Do you have good security?

L: Yes. Unfortunately I cannot say anything more.

G: Why did you do this cartoon?

L: It is a long story. The main thing is an exhibition in a small place in the Swedish countryside, a group exhibitions with the theme “dog”. I decided to do a very political incorrect drawing for the artworld. That was three drawings of the prophet as a dog, the first one as a traffic roundabout dog. Everything was accepted until the day when the press came. The drawings were in the last moment censored of security reasons. Then it became news all over the country and went far outside the artworld.

G: Have moderate Muslims said anything to you?

L: Several of them have written on the subject. They are not happy, insulted and unwillingly accepting the freedom of speech. They consider the project stupid and unnecessary.

G: What do you think about other newspapers that are afraid to carry your cartoon?

L: They acted politically correct. On the other hand the drawings have been published in around 7 newspaper and in Swedish television.

G: We think AQ offering a reward for you is a sign of their Impotence.

G: they have never offered a reward before,
But their cadre have been so decimated by the war on terror
they are forced to try and out source assassination?

L: In a way I find it positive that AQ (as well as the president of Iran, Muslim organisations in the Mideast) have shown an interest in contemporary art. And, which is important, they are all a part of the artwork. My project is not the drawings but the reactions and handling of the situation. Also this interview is a contribution to the artwork.

L: I think the whole is constructive as it has made everyone involved in a debate about Islam and integration questions in Sweden. So far everything is words and fiction. Not a single drop of blood.
Best wishes

Lars Vilks


Thanks Lars.
Gerald

Lars provided insight with this phrase:

"L: In a way I find it positive that AQ (as well as the president of Iran, Muslim organisations in the Mideast) have shown an interest in contemporary art"

I see no intent here, if it be a sin Allah will deal with him.

G

UPDATE: 10.01.07

Defying al-Qaida threats, artist wants to turn prophet cartoon uproar into musical

Karl Ritter, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
KLIPPAN, Sweden - He has offended Muslims worldwide and al-Qaida wants him dead, but the Swedish artist who portrayed the Prophet Muhammad as a dog said Monday he has no regrets.
Lars Vilks, 61, told The Associated Press he might use the uproar over his drawings as the subject of a musical, with prominent roles depicting Iran's president, Sweden's prime minister and al-Qaida terrorists.

"The Muhammad cartoon project must be made into an art work," said Vilks, breaking away for an interview during a business seminar in Klippan, a small town in southern Sweden. "A musical comes to mind ... I think it would help the debate."
The eccentric sculptor said previously that the cartoons weren't meant to insult Islam but rather to test the boundaries of artistic freedom.
He purports to be unfazed by death threats over his caricatures, which rekindled the Muslim anger but not the violence that swept the world last year in fiery protests over a Danish newspaper's publication of cartoons of Muhammad.

"Personally I'm not afraid," Vilks said, although he admitted he starts his day by looking for bombs underneath his car. On the advice of Sweden's security police, he now lives in a secret location under police protection.
"I think they are trying to frighten people. That's their aim," he said of the $100,000 bounty placed on his head by al-Qaida in Iraq. "Al-Qaida is far away, but it could be some sort of challenge for the extremists we have here."
Vilks said his drawings were meant to provoke, but only the Swedish art community, which refused to display the cartoons for security reasons. But the project took on a larger dimension Aug. 19 when a Swedish newspaper printed one of the cartoons, showing Muhammad's head on a dog's body in an editorial defending freedom of expression.

Dogs are considered unclean by conservative Muslims, and Islamic law is interpreted to forbid any depiction of the prophet, even favourable, for fear it could lead to idolatry.

More Source:
UPdate CNN gutless
gutless, CNN censors cartoon.

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Woman cited for threatening Prophet Mohammed cartoonist
Stockholm (dpa) - A woman has been cited for threatening the Swedish artist who made the caricature of Islam's Prophet Mohammed depicted as a dog, police said Wednesday.
The woman, a deeply religious Muslim, was reported to be upset over the caricature by Lars Vilks and had urged others to act against him, police in the southern city of Helsingborg said.

If the case is tried and she is convicted, she faces a fine or up to 12 months in prison.

Vilks told Swedish radio Wednesday that he had received several threats but he did not regard all of them as serious.

As the debate over the publication of the cartoon continued, Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt on Tuesday visited the main mosque in Stockholm and met with members of the Muslim Council of Sweden. Source:


Al Qaeda spy in Google:




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