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Fall 2007 Bulletin
Mohammed Cartoons Draw International Ire
The publication of cartoons featuring the Muslim prophet Mohammed led to death threats against a cartoonist and editor in Sweden and landed several journalists in Algerian court.
Death Threats Against Swedish Cartoonist Echo 2005 Controversy
On Aug. 18, 2007, Ulf Johansson, editor in chief of the Swedish newspaper Nerikes Allehanda, published a cartoon drawn by artist Lars Vilks that depicted the prophet Mohammed as a dog. According to Editor & Publisher, Johansson published the cartoon alongside an editorial objecting to the refusal of several art galleries to show Vilks’s cartoon in relevant exhibitions because of its controversial nature. Johansson wrote in his editorial that “Art galleries let themselves be frightened by a diffuse threat,” by refusing to display the illustration. “This sends a signal that it is easy to silence people through scaring them,” he wrote.
Muslim groups in Europe and Islamic governments all over the world have condemned the cartoon, and Vilks told The Times of London that he had received numerous threatening phone calls and e-mails following the cartoon’s publication.
One e-mail, however, Vilks called a “direct death sentence.” An e-mail from someone claiming to be Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, head of al-Qaeda in Iraq, offered $100,000 U.S. to anyone who killed Vilks, and $50,000 U.S. for Johansson’s murder. The e-mail offered a 50 percent bonus if Vilks were “slaughtered like a lamb” (killed by having his throat cut). It stated that if no one apologizes for the cartoon, al-Qaeda will “strike firms like Ericsson, Scania, Volvo, Ikea and Electrolux.”
The Times reported that the Swedish Embassy in Iraq lowered its flag after the threat was made, and that Ericsson had warned its employees in Iraq to keep a low profile and take extra care when parking their cars.
Muslim Council of Sweden director Helena Benouda condemned the threats, telling The Times, “We do not think like this. It is criminal to call to kill somebody. [This letter] is really unnecessary and it is ugly, especially in the month of Ramadan.” The Times reported that Vilks was calm about the threats, saying that the bounty on his head “makes my art project a little more serious,” and joking, “It is good to know what one is worth.”
According to The Times, Vilks has been put under police protection. He told The Times, “We must not give in. I’m starting to grow old. I could die at any time – it’s not a catastrophe.”
Journalists Acquitted After ‘Blasphemy’ Charge
On Oct 8, 2007 Sidi M’Hamed magistrate court in Algiers announced that three television station managers and six journalists had been acquitted of charges that they broadcast a “blasphemous” clip of cartoons depicting the prophet Mohammed during their news program, according to a translation of a report from Algerian newspaper El-Khabar by the BBC.
El-Khabar reported that the prosecution asked for five-year prison sentences for the managers of both Canal Algerie and A3 and three-year prison sentences for the journalists involved with the broadcasts.
According to South African news Web site Independent Online (IOL), both Canal Algerie and A3 ran 10-second clips that showed images of a few of the cartoons, originally published in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten in September 2005, which depicted the prophet Mohammed. (See “Controversial Cartoons Lead to Worldwide Concern for Speech, Press Freedom, and Religious Values” in the Winter 2006 issue of the Silha Bulletin.) IOL reported that Canal Algerie had argued in court that a “technical error” had led to the transmission of the caricatures because the videotape had not been checked in advance.
According to the BBC transcript of El-Khabar’s report, everyone charged in the case was acquitted on the grounds that the broadcast was unintentional.
- Sara Cannon, Silha Center Staff
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