Trevor Blake: Recent Documentaries on Cartoonists
via youtube.
Michael C. Moynihan: Lars Vilks, the Swedish cartoonist who drew Mohammed as a dog, was recently told that a scheduled lecture on free speech, to be held at Jönköping Högskolan, would be canceled due to ‘security concerns.’ This, of course, is a common evasion, intended to protect the brittle sensibilities of Muslim students while supposedly standing four square behind the right of free speech. Alas, the administrators in Jönköping had a point. During a lecture in Uppsala today [11 May 2010] Vilks was attacked by a pack of feral fundamentalists, one of whom managed to headbutt the artist and break his glasses. Police intervened and waged a short battle with the religious nutters who can be heard in the video [above], captured by the newspaper UNT, shouting Allahu Akbar! The AP has a quick report, explaining that “Uppsala University spokeswoman Pernilla Bjork said Vilks was showing a provocative film with sexual content to the crowd when the attacker ran up and hit him in the face with his fists.”
The above video isn’t even two minutes long. Go ahead, give it a look. Lars Vilks is one of several cartoonists who live with a bounty on their heads. They are sequestered in safe homes guarded by police. They receive daily threats of death. Sometimes they are punched, attacked with firebombs, chased by men with hatchets. Before they can receive visitors, the visitors and their possessions must be frisked. Before they drive anywhere, they have to check their cars for bombs. See all this and more from a recent documentary by a Finnish TV station [1][2][3].
Who are these stern comic critics? What is it they want to have happen? Is that what you want to have happen too?
