March 12, 2010 1:06 am
Yahoo! News, “Several Swedish papers publish Prophet Muhammad drawing after alleged plot to murder artist”
by Louise Nordstrom
Vilks submitted the drawing to an exhibit at a Swedish cultural heritage centre, which turned it down, citing security concerns. The issue went largely unnoticed until a Swedish newspaper printed the drawing with an editorial defending the freedom of expression.
The publication led to protests from Muslim countries, and briefly revived a heated debate in the West and the Muslim world about religious sensitivities and the limits of free speech.
It also led to numerous death threats against Vilks, who was temporarily moved to a secret location after al-Qaida in Iraq put a $100,000 bounty on his head in September 2007.
The 63-year-old artist told AP he has now built his own defence system, including a “homemade” safe room and a barbed-wire sculpture that could electrocute potential intruders. He also has an axe “to chop down” anyone trying to climb through the windows of his home, in southern Sweden.
Yahoo! News article continues here.
March 1, 2010 9:07 pm
Telegraph, “Islamic radicals ‘infiltrate’ the Labour Party”
by Andrew Gilligan
The Islamic Forum of Europe (IFE) — which believes in jihad and sharia law, and wants to turn Britain and Europe into an Islamic state — has placed sympathisers in elected office and claims, correctly, to be able to achieve “mass mobilisation” of voters.
Speaking to The Sunday Telegraph, Jim Fitzpatrick, the Environment Minister, said the IFE had become, in effect, a secret party within Labour and other political parties.
“They are acting almost as an entryist organisation, placing people within the political parties, recruiting members to those political parties, trying to get individuals selected and elected so they can exercise political influence and power, whether it’s at local government level or national level,” he said.
Telegraph article continues here.
February 23, 2010 1:49 pm
February 5, 2010 12:01 am
Fox News (AP), “Christmas Bomb Suspect Flips on Radical Imam, Source Says”
A law enforcement official says the Nigerian suspect in the failed Christmas Day airliner attack has given up intelligence about a radical Muslim cleric hiding in Yemen.
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab has been cooperating with the FBI. He has provided information about Anwar al-Awlaki, a U.S.-born cleric who has emerged as a prominent Al Qaeda recruiter. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing investigation.
Abdulmutallab’s cooperation against al-Awlaki could provide fresh clues for authorities trying to capture or kill him in the remote mountains of Yemen. Al-Awlaki has been linked to the 9/11 hijackers, the Fort Hood shootings and the botched Christmas Day bombing attempt.
Fox News (AP) article continues here.
January 20, 2010 11:27 pm
Time, “The Fort Hood Report: Why No Mention of Islam?”
by Mark Thompson
The U.S. military’s just-released report into the Fort Hood shootings spends 86 pages detailing various slipups by Army officers but not once mentions Major Nidal Hasan by name or even discusses whether the killings may have had anything to do with the suspect’s view of his Muslim faith. And as Congress opens two days of hearings on Wednesday into the Pentagon probe of the Nov. 5 attack that left 13 dead, lawmakers want explanations for that omission.
John Lehman, a member of the 9/11 commission and Navy Secretary during the Reagan Administration, says a reluctance to cause offense by citing Hasan’s view of his Muslim faith and the U.S. military’s activities in Muslim countries as a possible trigger for his alleged rampage reflects a problem that has gotten worse in the 40 years that Lehman has spent in and around the U.S. military. The Pentagon report’s silence on Islamic extremism “shows you how deeply entrenched the values of political correctness have become,” he told TIME on Tuesday. “It’s definitely getting worse, and is now so ingrained that people no longer smirk when it happens.”
Time article continues here.
