Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Swedish Muhammad Cartoonist Attacked at Lecture

Via Reuters:

Lars Vilks, a Swedish cartoonist whose sketch of the Prophet Muhammad enraged many Muslims, was head-butted on Tuesday while giving a lecture about freedom of speech, he said.

A video of the incident (embedded below) showed an angry crowd in the lecture hall with many people on their feet and shouting. Police were at the front of the hall and one policewoman used pepper spray on a man.

Vilks, who depicted the Prophet Mohammad with the body of a dog in 2007, said he was assaulted by a man sitting on the front row as he spoke at the University of Uppsala, about 70 km (44 miles) from Stockholm.

3 comments:

Mark Anderson said...

Holey moley!

Sean Martin said...

Some in the audience seem to be acting just a little over the top, which makes me question their motives altogether.

I've seen the cartoons in question. They're not especially funny or smart and, frankly, would be better forgotten altogether.

Mike Lynch said...

Yeah, the cartoons were all published in the mainstream magazine Harper's, with commentary by Art Spiegelman, about 4 years ago. Each one was parsed and I have to agree with you, Sean. The cartoons have long gone beyond what they were -- now they are symbols; symbols that even Yale University Press, which is publishing a scholarly volume all about the cartoons, are afraid to print. Yup. A book about cartoons that won't print the cartoons!