A man has ben shot dead at Copenhagen’s Krudttoenden café, where a debate on free speech was underway.
The talk – called Art, blasphemy and the freedom of expression – featured an address by the French ambassador, the sight of Swedish artist Lars Vilks and the ghost of Salman Rushdie, who, though not there in person, was remembered for this being the anniversary of the fatwa that marked his life.
“I saw a masked man running past. A couple of police officers were injured. I clearly consider this as an attack on Lars Vilks.”
Speaking after the deadly attack on Charlie Hebdo last month, in which 12 died, Vilks said: “This will create fear among people on a whole different level than we’re used to. Charlie Hebdo was a small oasis. Not many dared do what they did.”
Two gunmen escaped in a dark Volkswagen Polo and are still at large, according to local reports.
I was invited to Lars Vilks committee in Copenhagen to present Passion for Freedom London Art Festival. The committee is organized annually and happens on the anniversary of Salman Rushdie’s fatwa. The meeting started with a short introduction from one of the organizers followed by François Zimeray, the French ambassador, commemorating Charlie Hebdo and discussing the challenges that we face when it comes to the threats to freedom of speech and democracy in our countries.
After a short introduction, Inna Shevchenko opened the panel and started to talk about Femen and her work. She also discussed her close friendship with Charb, the editor of Charlie Hebdo, and how they both stood strong exercising their right to freedom of expression. A few minutes into her speech we heard separate bangs… It sounded like a machine gun..
After the shooting subdued everyone started to come together. We decided to continue with the presentation…Everyone thanked us that we continued. We will not surrender; they cannot kill all of us.
LARS Vilks, aka Larks Milks, the Swedish artist who drew adolescent images of Mohammad Muslim prophet, as a dog and reponded to death threats by brandishing an axe, has been attacked.
At Uppsala University, Vilks showed is some images from Soora Hera’s Allah-o-gaybar series. The film features two half naked men wearing Mo-masks. Irnaisn –born Hera told us of threats to her person:
“They said to me, ‘We’re going to burn you naked or put a bullet in your mouth’. They say, ‘Now you are locked in your home and you cannot go out any more.’”
Back to Vilks who says:
“The man was sitting in the front row and suddenly came rushing towards me. He headbutted me, and I was thrown against the wall and dropped my glasses.”
WHEN we first heard that Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks had been targeted by Irish Muslims, we thought it no bad thing. Ok, Lars might be murdered by lunatics, but it seemed that finally Ireland’s immigrant community had assimilated and was grasping the concept of ultra violence fed by religious fundamentalism.
Lars Vilks had depicted the Prophet Mohammed with the body of a dog and Irish Muslims were gonna get him. One day they’d paint murals of the killers on walls erected around Muslim enclaves. One day there would be parades.
And then came the bad news. The Irish plotters weren’t Irish. One was Algerian national Ali Charafe Damache, the other a Libyan called Abdul-Salam Mansour Al-Jehani.
And then it got more disappointing. Damache was charged with sending a menacing text message while Al-Jehani was charged with an immigration offence.
In other Irish news, everyone can at least agree that the Jews are to blame…
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PLEASE NOTE THE FACE OF THE GARDA OFFICER HAS BEEN BLURRED BY THE PRESS ASSOCIATION
Previously unissued photo dated 13/03/10 of Algerian national Ali Charafe Damache as he arrivives at an earlier hearing at Waterford District Court and who was tonight charged in connection with an alleged plot to murder Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks, who depicted the Prophet Mohammed with the body of a dog.
IN Ireland, two Muslim men have been charged with the alleged plot to murder Stedish cartoonist Lars Vilks. Swedish newspapers, Dagens Nyheter and Expressenpublished one of Lars Vilks’ cartoons of Mohammed.
Ali Charafe Damache, a 49-year-old Algerian, is charged with sending a threatening text message. A Libyan giong by the name Abdul-Salam Mansour Al-Jehani is charged with immigration violations.
8513723
Image 1 of 13
PLEASE NOTE THE FACE OF THE GARDA OFFICER HAS BEEN BLURRED BY THE PRESS ASSOCIATION
Previously unissued photo dated 13/03/10 of Algerian national Ali Charafe Damache as he arrivives at an earlier hearing at Waterford District Court and who was tonight charged in connection with an alleged plot to murder Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks, who depicted the Prophet Mohammed with the body of a dog.
FOLLOWING those pictures of alleged Muslim terror target and would-be axe man Lars Vilks – he’s the one, reportedly, putting Ireland’s non Catholic-Protestant fundamentalist community on the map – news that Swedish newspapers have not buckled. Some have reprinted the artist’s average drawings of the prophet Mohammed as a roundabout dog.
Media Watch reports: THREE of Sweden’s largest daily newspapers, Dagens Nyheter and Expressen, today published one of Lars Vilks’ controversial Modog cartoons in the wake of the recent “Jihad Jane” assassination plot.
In its editorial, Dagens Nyheter said,
A threat against him is, in the end, a threat against all Swedish people.