Recently in Muhammad cartoons Category

Swedish Muhammad cartoonist Lars Vilks is famous for his Roundabout dog: the Islamic prophet depicted with a dog body. The Danish counter-jihad blogger and founder of Free Speech Europe, Hans Erling Jensen, and Vilks have started the performance "The Roundabout Dog TOUR", in which a plywood model of Muhammad with a dog body is touring several countries to promote free speech.

The tour started April 1st and is planned to continue until September 30th. See pictures and follow the tour updates on en.freespeech.nu. It is also possible to support Free Speech Europe and the tour by buying copies of four beautiful Vilks paintings depicting Muhammad as a dog on a table, as a dog on a bed with a naked lady, on a t-shirt on a lady and his chopped off head in the hand of what looks like a androgyn version of the Goddess of Justice. From Dispatch International, "Roundabout dogs will be barking for free speech" (login needed):

Muhammed the Dog in front of Islamic Center in Malmö

Come April 1st, the Roundabout Dog starts touring Europe. Based on a design by the Swedish artist Lars Vilks, the organization Freespeech Europe has build plywood models of the dog, which will pay surprise visits to a variety of European cities.

"Due to security concerns, we cannot disclose our tour plan, but the Roundabout Dog was always about surprise, so we will continue in that spirit," says Hans Erling Jensen, the initiator of the project.

The Roundabout Dog was a form of street art that appeared in Sweden during the year 2006. It started with the art installation Cirkulation, placed in the Nygård roundabout in Linköping, Sweden, a white dog staring at a hula hoop nine meters tall. When someone sawed the head off the dog, the artist Stina Opitz was given the task of creating a new dog, this time made out of metal.

It is not really known why the Swedes then started to mass manufacture roundabout dogs, to clandestinely place them in all kinds of traffic circles. It became a moderate-sized public movement during the next few years.

Then, when Lars Vilks made a drawing of a roundabout dog with the head of the Islamic prophet Mohammed, the idea went down the drain and the roundabout dogs died out. Death threats were raining on Vilks, who nowadays lives with round-the-clock bodyguards. ...

"We plan to visit seven countries: Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands and Switzerland. It is our hope, of course, to start discussions about freedom of speech. Do we Europeans really want the artists to continue their self-censorship, or do we want a society where everything can be criticized and made fun of?"

"If you were in front of me, I would shoot you. I would put a bullet in your head." But don't take language like that out of context, now!

"Algerian in Jihad Jane plot faces US extradition," by Shawn Pogatchnik for the Associated Press, February 27 (thanks to Kenneth):

DUBLIN (AP) — An Algerian man wanted by American authorities over the abortive "Jihad Jane" plot to assassinate a Swedish artist was arrested while leaving an Irish courthouse Wednesday and could face U.S. extradition demands within hours.

Ali Charaf Damache, 47, had just walked free from a court in Waterford, southeast Ireland, after three years in an Irish prison when detectives acting on an American extradition warrant rearrested and escorted him, handcuffed, to an unmarked police car. Court officials said his extradition proceedings could begin Thursday in Dublin High Court.

The FBI and U.S. Justice Department accuse Damache of being the ringleader behind an unrealized 2009 conspiracy to target artist Lars Vilks in Sweden over his series of drawings depicting the Muslim prophet Muhammad as a dog. Muslim extremists in Iraq had offered a $100,000 reward for anyone who killed Vilks, who was never attacked.

U.S. prosecutors say Damache, who has lived in Ireland since 2000, recruited two U.S. women via jihadist web sites to help him target Vilks. One of the women who billed herself as "Jihad Jane," Colleen LaRose, was arrested by the FBI soon after she returned from Ireland in September 2009. Damache married the other woman, Jamie Paulin Ramirez, in a Muslim ceremony on the day she arrived in Ireland from Colorado that same month. Ramirez and Damache were arrested in their Waterford home in March 2010; she voluntarily returned to the United States to face charges there.

Both LaRose, now 49, and Ramirez, now 34, have pleaded guilty — LaRose to conspiring to kill Vilks, Ramirez to lesser charges of aiding terrorists — and are imprisoned in the United States pending their sentencing, which has been repeatedly delayed. LaRose faces up to life in prison, Ramirez a maximum 15 years.

Irish detectives investigating Damache's links to both women trawled his telephone records and discovered he had telephoned a Michigan attorney, Majed Moughni, the lead organizer of an Arab-American protest in Detroit called to denounce Islamic extremists. Moughni told police he received a telephoned death threat the day after that January 2010 demonstration — and taped it.

Damache had pleaded not guilty to Irish charges of making death threats until Tuesday, when prosecutors played the audiotape. A voice identified as Damache's could be heard telling Moughni: "If you were in front of me, I would shoot you. I would put a bullet in your head."

On Wednesday, Damache's lawyers said their client was changing his plea to guilty and wanted to say sorry to Moughni. The presiding judge in Waterford Circuit Court, Donagh McDonagh, described the threat as premeditated and frightening. He gave Damache a four-year sentence but suspended the final year, which meant he was eligible for immediate release given his jail time already served.

He was rearrested within minutes of leaving the courtroom....

And the "free" press is already submitting in advance

In the face of this thuggery, the Western "free" press cowers and submits. "From The MEMRI Jihad And Terrorism Threat Monitor: On Twitter, Jihadists Call For Major Terror Attacks Against France In Response To Publication Of Muhammad Comic Book," from MEMRI, January 4 (thanks to Pamela Geller):

On January 2, 2012, via Twitter, jihadists debated the issue of the appropriate response to a comic book biography of the Prophet Muhammad published this week by the French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo.

The suggestions included: killing France's ambassadors, just as the "manly" Libyan fighters killed the U.S. ambassador in Benghazi; carrying out operations similar to 9/11, London's July 7, 2005 bombings, and Madrid's March 11, 2004 bombings, because only attacks of this kind would deter and defeat the "crusaders"; carrying out assassinations; conducting suicide bombings outside the French Information Ministry building; and holding demonstrations outside French embassies, especially in Egypt, because it has [allegedly] been proven that the Egyptian public can sway the entire Arab public.

It was also suggested that Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) kill the hostages it is holding, and that anyone who can kill a French national do so without hesitation.

One participant in the debate proposed that condemnations be issued and that a film be produced in which infidels play the role of the Prophet's Companions, in order to show the world that Muslims are not fundamentalists.

Clearly.

"Ihsanoglu urged all Muslims to exercise restraint in the face of this incitement. He reiterated the OIC's principled position on developing an international consensus on dealing with a frequency of deliberate acts of incitement, within the framework of the Human Rights Council Resolution 16/18." In other words, don't riot and kill this time, since soon we will prevail upon dhimmi Western governments to outlaw criticism of Islam. And the dhimmi press is already falling into line.

"OIC slams French caricature of Prophet," from Arab News, January 3 (thanks to Lookmann):

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has slammed caricatures of the Prophet (peace be upon him), published in the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, saying it incites hatred and intolerance against Muslims.

OIC Secretary-General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu expressed concern at the publication of the comic book series on the life of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh).

Ihsanoglu said the publication went against the norms of responsible journalism and was tantamount to abuse of the right to freedom of expression. He added that incitement and advocacy of hatred and intolerance on religious grounds signified by this publication was in contravention of international human rights laws and instruments.

He called on the magazine to abide by the provisions, particularly those in the European Union (EU) context, on incitement to hatred and violence. He urged the authorities in France to take appropriate action against the magazine.

Ihsanoglu urged all Muslims to exercise restraint in the face of this incitement. He reiterated the OIC's principled position on developing an international consensus on dealing with a frequency of deliberate acts of incitement, within the framework of the Human Rights Council Resolution 16/18.

Charb with the paper's last Muhammad issue

The same photo as it appeared in al-Arabiya

In picking up this story from AFP, al-Arabiya includes the photo above, carefully censored so as not to touch off another round of murderous rage from Islamic supremacists. They thus indicate that violent intimidation works: if someone will riot and kill over what someone else says or does, it is increasingly taken for granted in this thoroughly confused world that the responsibility lies with the one who has given offense, rather than with the one who has taken it. The idea that one is in control of one's own reactions and bears sole responsibility for them is increasingly lost in the face of the Islamic supremacist onslaught against the freedom of speech.

And so it will be with this comic book: if Muslims riot and kill once it is published, there will be new calls, even in the Western "free" press, for self-censorship and criminalization of "insults" to Islam. No one will say that free speech is our foremost defense against tyranny, and that those who riot and kill because of someone else's actions are the only ones responsible for what they do. Such is the madness and cowardice that has overtaken the public discourse.

"French paper to publish comic book life of Prophet Mohammed," from AFP, December 30:

A French weekly known for publishing cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed to the ire of conservative Muslims said Sunday it plans to release a comic book biography of Islam’s founder that will be researched and educational.

Satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo has on several occasions depicted Islam’s prophet in an effort to defend free speech and defy the anger of Muslims who believe depicting Mohammed is sacrilegious.

“It is a biography authorized by Islam since it was edited by Muslims,” said Charlie Hebdo’s publisher and the comic’s illustrator, who goes by the name Charb.

“I don’t think higher Muslim minds could find anything inappropriate,” Charb said.

Oh, just you wait.

The biography will be published Wednesday and was put together by a Franco-Tunisian researcher known only as Zineb, Charb said.

The publisher said the idea for the comic book came to him in 2006 when a newspaper in Denmark published cartoons of Mohammed, later republished by Charlie Hebdo, drawing angry protests across the Muslim world.

“Before having a laugh about a character, it’s better to know him. As much as we know about the life of Jesus, we know nothing about Mohammed,” Charb said.

In September Charlie Hebdo published cartoons of a naked Mohammed as violent protests were taking place in several countries over a low-budget film made in the United States that insults the prophet.

In 2011 Charlie Hebdo’s offices were hit by a firebomb and its website pirated after publishing an edition titled “Charia Hebdo” featuring several Mohammed cartoons.

Charb, who has received death threats, lives under police protection.

At Atlas Shrugs I discuss the latest in an ever-lengthening series of concerted Muslim actions against the freedom of speech:

France 24 reported last week that “two Muslim groups are suing the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo after it published inflammatory cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed. In a law suit that will revive the debate between freedom of speech and dangerous provocation, the weekly magazine’s director along with two cartoonists are accused of inciting racial hatred and defamation.”

This comes after the magazine’s September 19, 2012 edition contained numerous cartoons lampooning Muhammad – and this wasn’t the first time Charlie Hebdo had done this. In Fall 2011, the magazine announced plans to feature Muhammad as “editor-in-chief” of an upcoming issue. The initial response was threats. Hackers broke into the magazine’s website and left this message: “You keep abusing Islam’s almighty Prophet with disgusting and disgraceful cartoons using excuses of freedom of speech. Be Allah’s curse upon you!”

Then, when the issue appeared in November 2011, the publication’s offices were firebombed and destroyed. Yet Charlie Hebdo’s editor, Stephane “Charb” Charbonnier, was not cowed. “We no longer have a newspaper,” he said. “All our equipment has been destroyed or has melted. We cannot, today, put together a paper. But we will do everything possible to do one next week. Whatever happens, we’ll do it. There is no question of giving in.”

Charbonnier also warned of the danger of placing Islam and Muslims above criticism and even mockery: “If we can poke fun at everything in France, if we can talk about anything in France apart from Islam or the consequences of Islamism, that is annoying.”

He reiterated these positions when he published the next batch of Muhammad cartoons in September 2012: “We have the impression that it’s officially allowed for Charlie Hebdo to attack the Catholic far-right but we cannot poke fun at fundamental Islamists. It shows the climate. Everyone is driven by fear, and that is exactly what this small handful of extremists who do not represent anyone want: to make everyone afraid, to shut us all in a cave.”

Charnonnier added: “Muhammad isn’t sacred to me. I don’t blame Muslims for not laughing at our drawings. I live under French law; I don’t live under Koranic law.”

Charbonnier disclaimed all responsibility for any violence that might follow his publication of the cartoons: “I’m not the one going into the streets with stones and Kalashnikovs. We’ve had 1,000 issues and only three problems, all after front pages about radical Islam.”

Nonetheless, this lawsuit has come, and that it is taken seriously anywhere and not immediately dismissed as the very definition of a frivolous lawsuit shows how much the public discourse has degenerated. It should be clear that Charlie Hebdo bears no responsibility for inciting any hatred; the only ones who do bear such responsibility are those who riot and kill over perceived insults to Islam.

They, and they alone, are responsible for their actions. This should be obvious, but it isn’t in a world gone mad. Let’s say you call me a racist, bigoted Islamophobe. I am deeply insulted. At that moment I have a huge range of options before me. I can calmly explain to you that Islamic supremacism is not a race, fighting for free speech and equality of rights for all is not bigotry, and “Islamophobia” is a manipulative concept used by the Muslim Brotherhood and its allies to stifle resistance to Islamic supremacism and jihad. Or I can start yelling and calling you names. Or I can start muttering into my vodka tonic about the injustice of it all. Or I can murder you, drag your body through the streets, set fire to your embassy, and demand laws against insulting me. Or I can do any number of other things.

Which one will I choose? It’s up to me, not to you. You might have a strong hunch as to how I will react, and say to your companion, “That Spencer, he is going to come out with another windy, closely reasoned refutation of my charges that everyone will ignore,” or “That Spencer, he is going to burn down my embassy,” but you still can’t be absolutely sure what I am going to do, because I am not an automaton, I am a human being endowed with the faculty of reason, and I may always choose to react in a way that will surprise you.

Or I may not. But in any case, it is up to me. If I kill you, there is absolutely no justifiable basis on which anyone could say, “Well, he had it coming. Look how he provoked him.” My choice was my own, and only I bear responsibility for it.

But today that basic and elemental truth is lost. If Muslims rage, riot and murder for any reason, they bear no responsibility. The only ones who bear any responsibility for their raging, rioting and murdering are the non-Muslims who somehow provoked them.

So anyone who may have reacted hatefully to Charlie Hebdo’s cartoons bears responsibility for his actions. Charlie Hebdo doesn’t.

That I have to take the time to explain this at all, and that it will be universally ignored, is an indication of how far we have fallen. The road is being swiftly paved for the destruction of the freedom of speech. When, in another year or so, I am safely imprisoned for daring to speak the truth and a new era of peace has dawned between the West and the Islamic world, and yet the jihad keeps coming, and the full implications of the new “hate speech” laws start to become clear in the quashing of all political dissent, don’t say you weren’t warned.

Of course, maybe none of that will happen, and the freedom of speech will suddenly sport a thousand articulate defenders who have not yet been completely demonized and marginalized out of the public square. But I don’t see them on the horizon right now.

This is the second Muslim arrested for calling for the death of Charb, the editor of Charlie Hebdo. "French cops arrest man for calling for Charlie Hebdo head," from Sapa-AFP, September 22 (thanks to Wimpy):

French police arrested a man for apparently calling on a jihadi website for the decapitation of the editor of a magazine that published cartoons mocking Mohammed, a judicial source said.

The man was detained in the western city of La Rochelle for calling on the radical website for the head of satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, which on Wednesday published cartoons of a naked Prophet.

"The essential thing is not to let him live in peace," the man allegedly wrote.

Police have opened a preliminary probe on charges of incitement to commit murder, the source said.

France's Muslim leaders on Friday urged militants not to defy a ban on protests over the cartoons, as a security alert closed the country's embassies across the Islamic world....

A rowdy protest at the film close to the US embassy in Paris last weekend led to 150 arrests and there have been calls on social networks for another demonstration in central Paris on Saturday.

French authorities know they are a seedbed for mayhem and violent jihadist thuggery. "France bans protests over Prophet Mohammad cartoons," from Reuters, September 21 (thanks to Block Ness):

PARIS, Sept 21 (Reuters) - France confirmed on Friday it would allow no street protests against cartoons denigrating Islam's Prophet Mohammad that were published by a French magazine this week.

Interior Minister Manuel Valls said prefects throughout the country had orders to prohibit any protest over the issue and crack down if the ban was challenged.

"There will be strictly no exceptions. Demonstrations will be banned and broken up," he said.

Everyone knew this was coming. If only we would outlaw criticism of Islam and submit to Sharia, all would be well and all manner of thing would be well. It's so simple! "French man held over Mohammad cartoon revenge plan," from Reuters, September 20 (thanks to David):

PARIS/MARSEILLE, France Sept 20 (Reuters) - Police detained a young man in southern France on Thursday on suspicion that he was planning a revenge attack on the staff of a satirical magazine which published cartoons mocking the Prophet Mohammad.

Anti-terrorism magistrates near the Mediterranean port city of Toulon questioned the 18-year-old after he threatened in a message on Facebook to cut the throats of anyone he could find at the offices of Charlie Hebdo, a judicial source said.

The magazine's publication of cartoons ridiculing Mohammad added to the anger of Muslims already outraged over an anti-Islam film produced in the United States and posted on the Internet.

The suspect had no police record but he was already known to security services, the source said, without giving further details....

Here are the latest Muhammad cartoons from Charlie Hebdo, via Bivouac-ID. Important interview with the editor, Charb, here.

Over the last few days the truth of the old adage that the devil cannot endure to be mocked has been confirmed again and again. Today the forces of oppression cannot endure to be mocked, and are eager to pass laws to make such mockery impossible. Such laws would be the death of free societies and the inauguration of tyranny. Consequently, such mockery is all the more necessary in these dark times.

See them all here

In response, Essam Erian of the Muslim Brotherhood called for restrictions on the freedom of speech.

Is there anything anyone could say to you that would move you to riot and kill? Is the likelihood that people will riot and kill because of these cartoons sufficient reason to shut them down? Wouldn't that set a precedent whereby any group that didn't like what someone else was saying could riot and kill until he was shut down?

It reflects well on France that they didn't seize copies of the magazine or arrest Charb.

"Magazine’s nude Mohammad cartoons prompt France to shut embassies, schools in 20 countries," by Nicholas Vinocur for Reuters, September 19 (thanks to Christine):

PARIS — A French magazine ridiculed the Prophet Mohammad on Wednesday by portraying him naked in cartoons, threatening to fuel the anger of Muslims around the world who are already incensed by a film depicting him as a womanizing buffoon.

The French government, which had urged the magazine not to print the images, said it was temporarily shutting down premises including embassies and schools in 20 countries on Friday, when protests sometimes break out after Muslim prayers.

Riot police were deployed to protect the Paris offices of satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo after it hit the news stands with a cover showing an Orthodox Jew pushing the turbaned figure of Mohammad in a wheelchair. On the inside pages, several caricatures of the Prophet showed him naked.

Reacting to the publication, Essam Erian, acting head of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party, told Reuters: “We reject and condemn the French cartoons that dishonor the Prophet and we condemn any action that defames the sacred according to people’s beliefs.”

Calling for a UN treaty against insulting religion, he added: “We condemn violence and say that peaceful protests are a right for everyone. I hope there will be a popular western and French reaction condemning this.”...

Worth killing for

The worst part about this is that the West will continue trying to curtail the freedom of speech to avoid offending lunatics like this, instead of telling the Islamic world that to react with violent rage to a few cartoons is madness. "Egypt arrests man after nail bomb attack on German embassy," from Reuters, August 22 (thanks to David):

(Reuters) - Police in Egypt on Wednesday arrested a man who tossed four homemade nail bombs into the German embassy grounds and attacked the entrance with a hammer but injured nobody and caused no serious damage, the embassy and security sources said.

The man acted out of anger after reading an Egyptian newspaper report on Friday which described a protest by German right-wing activists who had paraded caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad in front of a German mosque, they said.

Many Muslims consider any depiction of the Prophet to be offensive - a series of cartoons in a Danish newspaper in 2005 on the same subject sparked protests across the Islamic world.

"It was just one person who attacked the embassy and damaged the glass of the entrance with a hammer," said a spokeswoman for the German embassy. "There was no major damage and no one hurt."...

Oh, well, then it's OK.

The cost of misunderstanding Islam continues to mount. Here, a convert to Islam misunderstood his new, peaceful religion, and is looking at 12 years in prison for it. Yet Islamic groups in the U.S. seem indifferent to this plague upon their community, and have no programs in place -- none -- to prevent young Muslims from misunderstanding Islam. How curious! "Man faces sentence for online 'South Park' threat," by Matthew Barakat for the Associated Press, June 22 (thanks to JCB):

ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- Federal prosecutors are seeking more than 12 years in prison for a Muslim convert from Brooklyn who pleaded guilty to posting online threats against the creators of the "South Park" television show.

Sentencing is scheduled Friday in Alexandria, Va., for Jesse Curtis Morton, who founded the now-defunct Revolution Muslim website. Earlier this year, he admitted using the site as an outlet for al-Qaida propaganda. He also conspired with another man to deliver a thinly veiled threat to the creators of the "South Park" television show for perceived insults to the prophet Muhammad.

Defense attorneys are asking for a prison term of less than five years.

The other defendant in the case, Zachary Chesser, got a 25-year sentence, but he also tried to travel to Somalia to join the al-Shabab militant group.

The free world should condemn those who plot murder over this

It is good that these men were convicted, but Motoon Rage is achieving its desired end result: most Western politicians would sooner condemn the cartoons and other perceived "insults" to Islam, and censor themselves and their constituents, rather than stand up and condemn the demonic madness of murdering over cartoons. "Four guilty of Danish plot over Muhammad cartoons," from the BBC, June 4 (thanks to all who sent this in):

Four men have been found guilty by a Danish court of planning a terrorist attack on the offices of the Jyllands-Posten newspaper in Copenhagen.

The court heard the men wanted to kill a large number of people in revenge for the paper's publication of cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad in 2005.

The four were all Muslims resident in Sweden. Police said they were arrested just hours before the foiled attack.

The men, who had denied charges of terrorism, face up to 16 years in jail.

Jyllands-Posten's publication of the cartoons of Muhammad sparked protests in Muslim countries....

"Protests," yes, including insane violence and the murder of innocent people. And these jihadis intended to murder even more innocent people:

Prosecutors said that they had intended to kill "an unknown number" of people during the attack, which had been due to take place on the same day as a sporting award ceremony attended by Crown Prince Frederik....

PET's former operative chief Hans Joergen Bonnichsen said: "To me there is no doubt that the latest arrests are rooted in the Muhammad cartoons." Yet still no one in the West denounces the madness and irrationality of killing and plotting to kill over cartoon images. Instead, the calls continue to limit the freedom of speech to appease the irrationally violent.

"PET foil 'concrete terror action,'" by Christian Wenande in the Copenhagen Post, May 29 (thanks to all who sent this in):

Domestic intelligence services have picked up two Danish-Somali brothers suspected of plotting a terrorist attack in Denmark.

The two brothers, who are believed to have connections to the Somali terrorist group al-Shabab, were arrested on Monday evening and are due to appear in court today in Aarhus for preliminary questioning.

One of the brothers was arrested in Aarhus while the other was arrested at Copenhagen Airport. Authorities have ransacked two addresses in connection with the arrests.

Domestic intelligence agency PET suspect the two brothers, aged 18 and 23, of planning a terror attack in Denmark after hearing them discuss potential targets, methods of attack and use of weaponry. Both brothers are Danish citizens of Somali heritage and have lived in the Aarhus area for about 16 years.

One of the brothers is suspected to have received instruction at an al-Shabab training base in Somalia, which is a new phenomenon for a terror arrest in Denmark, according to Hans Jørgen Bonnichsen, the former operative head of PET.

”It makes a difference whether or not they have been trained or are self-active,” Bonnichsen told Politiken newspaper. “It is the first time in Denmark that an arrested individual has been trained, and the odds of success increases greatly the moment that one is operationally capable.”...

“It is the belief of PET that a concrete terror action has been prevented with these arrests," PET wrote on its website. “And the arrests do not change the assessment of the terror threat level in Denmark, which is still viewed as being serious.”

Meanwhile, the umbrella organisation for 13 Somali associations, AarhuSomali, was shocked about the terror plans and have vowed to help the authorities any way they can.

“I am concerned, shocked and sad about the situation concerning two young Somali brothers arrested for terror,” AarhuSomali spokesman Abdirahman M. Lidle told Ekstra Bladet tabloid. “We want the case to be solved and will help any way we can.”

Despite several enquiries in the Somali community, no information has surfaced about the two arrested brothers.

How odd! I thought they wanted to help any way they could!

We need more parties like the Pro NRW in Germany. As part of their preparations for the coming regional elections, Pro NRW has arranged a competition: Draw the best Mohammed cartoon -- "Berlin Worried About 'Muhammad Cartoon Contest'":

A far-right group in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia is running a 'Muslim cartoon contest' and plans to display the works outside mosques. The move has alarmed authorities which fear it could incite violence and hurt German interests abroad, similar to the backlash that followed the 2005 publication of cartoons in Danish newspapers.

The winner of Pro NRW's Draw Mohammad Contest: "It seems that the church has integrated very well in Germany"

Photo from the demonstration in Bonn. More photos here.

The first 25 seconds of this German news video from the demonstration in Bonn show how an army consisting of 600 Muslims attacked the police with weapons. The police arrested 109 attackers.

The German police's attempt to protect the peace in Bonn and the democratic and peaceful demonstrators from Pro NRW with a few parked cars is childishly naive and not a good sign for the future safety of Germans. Translated by Nicolai Sennels from Danish, Jyllands-Posten, May 5: "Mohammad drawings stirred trouble in Bonn":

29 policemen wounded and more than 100 people arrested at demonstrations in Germany

On Saturday, May 5th 2012, in the former West German capital of Bonn, 29 policemen were wounded and more than 100 were arrested following violent protests.

An anti-Islamic event, organized by a local extremist right-wing party, turned violent when it was confronted by a counter-demonstration consisting of radical Salafis who believe in a strict fundamentalist version of Islam.

The row began when up to 30 supporters of the Pro NRW party walked around with caricatures ridiculing Islam. Pro NRW made similar demonstrations a few days earlier in Solingen, 60 kilometers north of Bonn, which also sparked violence.

Two German officers were seriously injured by stab wounds in Bonn and another 27 of their colleagues were also injured, the police in North Rhine-Westphalia informed us.

Doctors managed to save the two officers' lives. The suspected perpetrators are arrested, and police have seized clubs, a sling and stones.

The police had parked their personnel carriers between the Pro NRW supporters and the Islamists, but did not manage to stop the attack.

Between 500 and 600 people from the counter-demonstration began throwing stones, the police interfered and the situation escalated.

Worth killing for

Not enough for attempted murder, but at least he will be deported. "Attacker of Danish ‘Mohammed’ cartoonist sentenced to 10 years in prison," from Agence France-Presse, May 2 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

COPENHAGEN — The Somali man who attacked a Danish cartoonist for caricaturing the Prophet Mohammed will serve 10 years in prison before being expelled from Denmark, the Supreme Court confirmed Wednesday.

“There is no reason to change the 10-year prison sentence,” Denmark’s highest court ruled, stressing that Mohamed Geele, who attacked cartoonist Kurt Westergaard at his home on January 1, 2010 with an axe, was guilty of “attempted terrorism”.

The court also confirmed that once he has served his sentence the now 30-year-old Somali citizen would be expelled from Denmark and banned from ever returning.

Geele, who has been living in the Scandinavian country since he was 14 and has a wife and four young children there, had appealed his sentence to the Supreme Court, insisting the attack had nothing to do with terrorism and that he had only been trying to frighten Westergaard.

This is just meaningless wordplay. Why did he want to "frighten" Westergaard? Because he drew a cartoon of Muhammad that Geele thinks violated Islam's blasphemy laws. Islam's blasphemy laws call for death for blasphemy. It doesn't matter whether it is "terrorism" or not. It's Islam. It's Sharia. It's jihad.

He was initially sentenced to nine years behind bars in February 2011, but an appeals court hiked his sentence four months later to 10 years....

The Somali broke into 76-year-old Kurt Westergaard’s home near Aarhus in central Denmark on January 1, 2010 wielding an axe and screaming, “You must die! You are going to hell!”, according to the cartoonist’s testimony last year.

Geele, who is suspected of having links to the Somali Islamist movement Al-Shebab, had threatened police arriving on the scene with his axe and knife and was shot twice before being placed under arrest....

Wednesday’s ruling came as four people face trial in Denmark for “attempted terrorism” for allegedly plotting to massacre staff at the same paper over the cartoons.

Four Muslim Swedish citizens are charged for planning terror against Jyllands-Posten -- famous for publishing the Muhammed cartoons: Charges 'imminent' for Swedish terror suspects (5 Dec 11), Suspects planned to 'kill as many as possible' (2 Mar 12), 'Secret judges' in Danish terror case: Swede's rep (8 Apr 12), Swedish terror suspects plead 'not guilty' (13 Apr 12).

Translated from Danish by Nicolai Sennels, Politiken April 17: "Suspected terrorist: I came to Copenhagen to look at your famous fireworks"

The 46-year-old accused, MD, explained in court today that he arrived in Copenhagen at the end of December 2010 to celebrate the New Year.

"It was mostly for the fireworks. Your fireworks in Denmark is very famous. I would walk the streets and meet people. I would go to bars. You do not drink when you go out," said MD in court in the city of Glostrup.

MD is -- along with three other men -- accused of planning a terrorist attack against Jyllands-Posten / Politiken Hus in December 2010 as revenge for the publication of the Muhammad cartoons.

The explanation came when the prosecutor Gyrith Ulrich asked MD to explain his trip from Stockholm to Copenhagen. In the car were also OA and MA, both indicted in the case.

MD explained that he knew that OA and MA came to visit some mosques and meet people in Copenhagen.

The car the men drove in was rented until the fourth of January. The prosecutor wanted to know why MD had so few clothes with him when he was planning to be away for 6 to 9 days.

MD replied: "Is it not possible to buy clothes in Denmark? I always do."

In addition the prosecutor noted, "It's a little expensive in the long run."

"It might be to some, but that is how I normally travel. I have done so for all my life since I was 15," said MD.

MD and the other defendants were arrested on December 29, 2010, as police stormed an apartment in the city of Roskilde, where the men slept.

The prosecutor explained that a machine gun was found in MD's backpack, and that a gun was crammed in between the mattresses that he was sleeping on.

MD explained that he had been living a criminal life in Stockholm, and that there was always somebody who was threatening him.

MD further explained that the machine gun was broken and was to be repaired in Copenhagen, where his machine gun repairman "MISHU" is.

"We were going to meet at a train station on January 3rd. He would have the machine gun and he would repair it. If he sold it, it was fine, I would then get the money back," MD explained in court today.

MD was also questioned in court yesterday. He explained that in November 2008 he left his wife and their child, and his wife's sister -- whom he also had a child with -- and a mistress to live a life as a drug smuggler between Turkey and Iran.

MD also explained that he traveled in a number of countries, while he supported himself as clothing and carpet trader, dishwasher and other odd jobs. It gave him the opportunity to save up. In sum, he seems to have saved 20,000 USD.

This corresponds to the amount that was found by police along with the guns in the apartment in Herlev on December 29, 2010.

According to the Danish Police Intelligence Service (PET), the men planned to carry out an attack against Jyllands-Posten at the Town Hall Square in Copenhagen.

Worth murdering for

Somehow I doubt that Swedish nationality or residence was what drove these men to undertake their mass murder plot, but the VOA thinks that's the only detail about them that is pertinent.

"Trial for Alleged Terrorists Begins in Denmark," from the Voice of America, April 13:

Four Swedish men went on trial in Denmark Friday on terrorism charges arising from an alleged plot to attack a newspaper that published satirical cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad – an issue that has inflamed Muslims' passions in the past.

The VOA, like every other mainstream media outlet, has now apparently recited the Shahada and become Muslim, and acknowledges Muhammad as a prophet.

Three Swedish nationals and a resident of Sweden pleaded not guilty at the start of their trial, in a courtroom outside Copenhagen. Three of the men were arrested in December 2010 while they were allegedly heading to the offices of the newspaper newspaper to carry out the attack. The other man was arrested in Stockholm the same day, and later extradited to Denmark.

Prosecutors say the men on trial had ties to militant Islamist groups and international terrorist organizations, and had planned to kill a large number of people at the newspaper.

Three of the defendants also pleaded not guilty to charges of illegal weapons possession....