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Thursday, February 21, 2013

Lars Vilks Has More Mohammed Drawings To Exhibit, In Spite Of Death Threats

Swedish artist and sculptor Lars Vilk- who gained international notoriety for  pushing the limits of freedom of expression by drawing  the head of the Prophet Mohammed on the body of a dog in 2007 and was subsequently targeted for death by offended Muslims, and was then attacked at a lecture on freedom of speech in 2010- has some new paintings of Mohammad ready to exhibit.  The exhibition is set for July this year, in Malmö, Sweden- a city that is heavily populated by Muslims. Vilks believes:

"It's important to continue because if you yield to the threats and back away, you have abandoned the democratic principle."
His Mohammed dog drawing was published in 2007 along with an editorial on freedom of expression in the Swedish paper Nerikes Allehanda after several gallery exhibits pulled the Mohammed drawings because of security concerns.

His latest creations will still portray Mohammed with the body of a  dog, but this time:

 ...in famous works by artists including Claude Monet, Peter Paul Rubens and Anders Zorn.

It was "hard to tell" whether the July exhibition at a gallery in Sweden's third largest city, Malmoe, would prompt more protests and threats, he said.
"At some point this has to be over and done with," he said.

That is, if the gallery doesn't pull the exhibit. And unfortunately, I think it will be a very long time before it's ever over and done with.

He's certainly a courageous man, but I suppose things can't get any worse since he's already received death threats, and was the intended target of  American Colleen LaRose, aka Fatima LaRose, aka "Jihad Jane"- one of seven jihadists who  planned on killing Vilks in 2009.

 We'll see what destruction ensues if they do get exhibited.

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