Saturday - September 15, 2007

Killing for a Cartoon 

Al Qaeda in Iraq is offering $100,000 for the murder of the cartoonist who depicted Mohammed as a dog.

The head of an al Qaeda-led group in Iraq has offered $100,000 for the killing of a Swedish cartoonist for his drawing of Islam's Prophet Mohammad and threatened to attack big Swedish companies.

Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, leader of the self-styled Islamic State in Iraq, also offered $50,000 to anyone who killed the editor of the newspaper that published the drawing by Lars Vilks depicting the head of the Prophet on the body of a dog.

Sweden's Nerikes Allehanda daily published the drawing, part of a series which art galleries in Sweden had declined to display, last month in what it called a defense of free speech.

Islam does not allow images of the Prophet Mohammad and Muslims consider dogs to be unclean.

The controversy follows violent protests in the Muslim world last year over the publication by a Danish newspaper of cartoons some Muslims felt insulted the Prophet Mohammad. More than 50 people died across Asia, Africa and the Middle East.

Until now, the Swedish image, published on August 27, had drawn only diplomatic ire and a small local demonstration. Sweden's Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt met ambassadors from 22 Muslim countries to try to defuse the row. Read the rest.

 

Author: The Machiavellian
Technorati Tags: Iraq Al Qaeda
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