They may have been targeting Lars Vilks, creator of the cartoon above, who had stated plans to attend the art center event that was evacuated the other night. An update on this story. "Sweden terror suspects 'tied to Shebab Islamists," from Agence France-Presse, September 12:
Four terror suspects arrested in Sweden at the weekend have ties to the Somali Islamist movement Shebab and were plotting an attack using bombs and firearms, a newspaper reported Monday.
Neither Sweden's intelligence agency nor the police have confirmed the report, and have released few details about the arrests.
"Police suspect the men were about to carry out a terrorist attack with firearms and bombs," Gothenburg regional daily GT said in its online edition.
"Police sources have told GT the suspects are linked to the terror network Shebab," the paper said, without disclosing its sources.
The Al-Qaeda linked militia has waged a years-long insurgency against Somalia's weak, Western-backed transitional government and controls much of the south and centre of the Horn of Africa country.
An elite counter-terrorism unit arrested four people in Gothenburg, Sweden's second city, and evacuated hundreds of people from a building hosting an art fair "after concluding that there was a threat that could endanger lives or health or cause serious damage," officials said on Sunday.
Police then searched the building, breaking open several lockers, the paper said.
It is not known why the venue was seen as a target, and art fair organisers have not been given an explanation, GT said.
The paper speculated that it could have been because of a Swedish artist, Lars Vilks, who has received death threats from Shebab for depicting the Prophet Mohammed as a dog.
Whose prophet?
Vilks had said publicly he planned to attend the event but in the end did not.
He has faced numerous death threats and a suspected assassination plot since his drawing was first published by a Swedish regional newspaper in 2007, illustrating an editorial on the importance of freedom of expression.
"Wherever you are, if not today or tomorrow, know that we haven't yet forgotten about you," a Swedish Shebab member, Abu Zaid, said in a video, according to US monitoring group SITE in November 2010.
According to Swedish news agency TT, the four suspects arrested late Saturday are aged 23 to 26 and are residents of Gothenburg.
Three of the men are born in Africa and the fourth in the Middle East, it said. The man born in the Middle East and two of the Africa-born men are Swedish citizens while another holds a Swedish residency permit, it added....
You'd think that Sweden, sooooo accommodating to the Muslims, welcoming them in huge numbers with open arms, making no requirement whatsoever that they assimilate...might be exempted from the myriad of terror plots against infidels. But it's not to be. No one is safe.
The idea of a bonafide mutuality between Muslim and non-Muslim is the pathetic delusion of the dhimmi-in-waiting.
Of course, out of every 1,000 Muslim Somalis who misguidedly the West's political 'elite' has allowed to become resident here, some will be Islamic jihad activists or supporters, most likely of al-Shebab - a key argument for banning all immigration from Somalia.
This 'Times' article (of Dec 2009) is still very relevant in indicating the nature of the problem for just one Western nation, Britain:
"Wretched, jobless, invisible: are Britain’s Somalis the enemy within?"
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article6965717.ece
And today:
"Executed with a single shot: Chilling last moments of top British publisher as Kenyan gunships search for his kidnapped wife"
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2036490/Kenya-shooting-DavidTebbutt-killed-single-shot-gunships-search-kidnapped-wife.html
Abu, nor have we forgotten about you. You are a coward, striking from the darkness, hiding behind women and children and murdering the same. The foolishness of murdering for such a cartoon (and a poorly illustrated one I might add) is beyond belief. I am a devout Christian and I know how hurtful it is when someone mocks Jesus Christ. But to kill, especially innocents, for such an offense isn't even thinkable. Jesus, who you consider inferior to Mohammed, would have been appalled at such behavior. Looking at this case alone, which do you think justifies such behavior? Maybe you need to reconsider who and what you are following. Jesus said, "the devil comes to kill, steal and destroy..." and again, "you shall know them by their fruit." You have time to repent yet before you harm an innocent. I hope you'll get to it.
Drawing Muhammad is offensive to muslims because it is "haram". On the other hand, drawing Muhammad from ISLAMIC SOURCES is not "haram" it's "halal". So...
http://crossmuslims.blogspot.com/2010/05/drawing-muhammad-dessiner-mahomet.html
Sweden: Four suspected jihadists have ties to al-Shabaab, were "plotting an attack using bombs and firearms," and may have targeted Muhammad cartoonist
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Now Somalis—and some guy from somewhere in "the Middle East"—have tried to kill Lars Vilks. Before that it was Americans and Irish and Swedes—and possibly an Algerian. (The last has never been entirely clear to me.)
Of course, the above sounds rather absurd—and on a certain level, of course, it is. The threat has come entirely from Muslims—some hailing from Dar-al-Islam, some "home grown" in the West, both born Muslims and "reverts", some men and some women.
A pretty diverse bunch, one would think.
But one would be wrong. They all Muslims who become homicidally apoplectic if anyone insults or criticizes or even just questions "the Prophet".
More:
They may have been targeting Lars Vilks, creator of the cartoon above, who had stated plans to attend the art center event that was evacuated the other night.
...........................
I had been wondering about this. Of course, Muslims hate representational art of any kind, but it crossed my mind that this was likely something a bit more specific.
More:
Vilks had said publicly he planned to attend the event but in the end did not.
He has faced numerous death threats and a suspected assassination plot since his drawing was first published by a Swedish regional newspaper in 2007, illustrating an editorial on the importance of freedom of expression.
...........................
This poor man is under death threat and cannot more freely even in his own native and famously tolerant Sweden. I remember how shocked I was the first time an artist—Salman Rushdie—was targeted with death plots for something that he had peacefully created.
Rushdie was the first, but far, far from the last. Lars Vilks fellow MoToonists in Denmark–especially the highly visible Kurt Westergaard-are also under threat.
Most recently, Westergaard had his house broken into by a Somali (yes, another pious Muslim from the Horn of Africa) who tried to *kill him with an axe*.
More:
"Wherever you are, if not today or tomorrow, know that we haven't yet forgotten about you," a Swedish Shebab member, Abu Zaid, said in a video, according to US monitoring group SITE in November 2010.
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Lest their victims forget, and stop living in fear...
Off topic, but here's something else for the Jihadists to hate—my tribute to the tenth anniversary of 9/11:
ALWAYS REMEMBER
NEVER SUBMIT
http://s478.photobucket.com/albums/rr144/gravenimageartist/?action=view¤t=AlwaysRemember.jpg
Any comments are much appreciated.
Here's a thought for the impotent prancing peahen pretending to be a peacock, ahmed rehab:
America will "get over" 9/11 when you and your co-cultists such as the wannabe houri-humpers above get over and stop trying to kill everyone over the mo-toons, having your arses handed to you at Tours and Vienna, getting evicted from Spain, and any criticism of your choice of intellectual poison.
Until then, keep stroking your flaccid ego to your wet dreams of your own delusional supremacy and validity.
Good stuff, Graven.
I also remember your drawing of Muhammad and Aisha. I thought it was well-conceptualized...your use of props like the swing and her shoe falling off.
Please keep using your talents in the cause of human freedom.
You're obviously quite a lady!
The last story I read on this said the Swedish authorities refused to identify the terrorists or their motives. We should assume that the terrorists were Islamophobic, perhaps another Breivik.
Thank you so much, Cornelius. I'm also very flattered that you remember so many details of the Aisha picture.
Gravenimage
good post and analysis. Nothing to add.
I remember you telling us here in this forum, many years ago, of your first - wrenching - experience of Mohammedan vandalism toward representational art.
Perhaps you may wish to retell the story here, for the benefit of those new to this site and to this subject, especially those who may not even know that the sharia of Islam formally anathematises all visual representation of living beings, human or animal.
A moment's reflection on *that* shows us what is placed at risk by the prospect of an Islamised Europe.
One must contemplate, with shuddering horror, the prospect of Mohammedan sharia-pushing barbarians turned loose upon the immense store of European art and sculpture.
Imagine the Mona Lisa, the Girl with the Pearl Earring, the Jewish Bride, the Birth of Venus, and all those lovely stained glass windows in a thousand cathedrals, and the Pieta, and the David, smashed and burned by Mohammedan Rage Boys.
I recall reading, where precisely I cannot now recall, of someone's conversation with a priest in a historic (medieval-era) church in a town in England that is heavily Islamified. The local Mohammedan 'youths' kept throwing rocks through its priceless stained-glass windows...