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Arsonists target Mohammed cartoonist Lars Vilks

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THE house of Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks, who sparked controversy by drawing the Prophet Mohammed with the body of a dog, was targeted in an arson attack.

"The damage is rather minor. Part of the front is blackened and some windows were broken," police spokeswoman Sofie Oesterheim said.

"The fire went out by itself."

Police found glass bottles containing gasoline inside the house, which was empty at the time of the attack.

The arson attack came just days after Vilks was beaten while giving a lecture at Sweden's Uppsala University.

In 2007, Swedish regional daily Nerikes Allehanda published Vilks' satirical cartoon to illustrate an editorial on the importance of freedom of expression.

The cartoon prompted protests by Muslims in the town of Oerebro, west of Stockholm, where the newspaper is based. Egypt, Iran and Pakistan made formal complaints.

An al-Qaeda front organisation then offered a bounty to anyone who murdered Vilks and Nerikes Allehanda editor-in-chief Ulf Johansson.

Four men and three women, all Muslims originally from Morocco and Yemen, were arrested in southern Ireland in March over an alleged plot to assassinate the artist.

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Original piece is http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/arsonists-target-mohammed-cartoonist-lars-vilks/story-e6frfku0-1225867273169

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I do not wish to enter a debate, but B"s points require a response. B point that communal punishment is unacceptable is valid, provided - PROVIDED - that we are referring to Western democratic civilised societies. When Jews are attacked in Sweden for what Muslims believe is happening in Israel, they are attacking an uninvolved group. When Copts are murdered in Egypt on a rumour of an attack on a Muslim, that is communal punishment. When, as B notes, police need to accompany firemen into Muslim ghettoes, the whole community is condoning lawlessness. It is pure madness to maintain our civilised standards towards groups who flout those standards at the same time that they demand that we adhere to them or else be labelled Islamophobes and racists by the violators. If Muslims migrate to dar el harb, they need to shape up or ship out; we mustn"t adapt the them.

Posted by paul2 on 2010-05-18 12:11:10 GMT

I don"t see how Sweden or any country can assess penalties on a minority group due the lawlessness of some. Nor can or should mass deportation of any ethnic community ever be considered. Unfortunately, the Swedish government finds itself in a sociopolitical trap. On the one hand they wish to extend a hand to legitimate refugees in keeping with conventions entered into. On the other, no one could forsee the social problems that would evolve in a large immigration by generally uneducated, unskilled and primarily Mid-Eastern Muslims. Cities like Malmoe and Oerebro are increasingly terrorized by these immigrants, i.e. police escorts are needed for firemen to enter certain areas, and Jews are moving away due attacks on them. All but invited guests were forbidden to attend the Israel-Sweden Davis Cup match in Malmoe due Muslim threats of violence. Islamic clerics need no invitation to prevent violence. They could easily do that on their own. They don"t. A few have but without effect. Empassioned calls to violence and hatred appeal to the radicalized Muslim. Much like the empassioned Nazi, calls for violence and hatred against a common enemy - the Jew - was the mechanism used to unitfy that society. And so it seems to be for Muslims clerics. Legislating against clerics proves to be tricky, be it Catholic or Muslim priests.

Posted by B. on 2010-05-18 08:30:44 GMT

The Swedish government should give the mohammedan cleics the option of issuing a fatwa forbidding violent acts in response to real or perceived slights to Islam or its founder, or face a communal penalty for lawlessness. And if the community refuses to pay, it should be deported to their ancestral lands.

Posted by paul2 on 2010-05-18 07:30:03 GMT

While I do think it lacks respect and tact to portray any religious icon or symbol with the body of a dog, it just astounds me how many times a day, and how many times a week we are forced to hear about the psychopathic reactions of the Muslim people. Whenever something is said or done which provokes their unfathomable sensitivities, envy, inferiority complexes, or simple inability to cope with lifes hurdles, we have to hear about their criminal excesses. Clearly, no one likes fun to be poked at them. I would find it shameful if images of Christ or Moses were depicted as a dog. But, it reflects on the poor taste and lack of tact by the artist, and nothing more. That Muslims time and again prove to us how uncouth and imbecilic they and their ideology must be is pitiful and tedious. The greatest proof of the bankruptcy of that ideology is the quantity of sick, violent and hateful sociopaths it produces.

Posted by B on 2010-05-17 11:20:05 GMT

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