Western Resistance

« Pakistan: Taliban Islamists Take Control Of Town | | Azerbaijan: Armed Islamists Who Plotted Embassy Attacks »

November 14, 2007

Sweden: Mailing Company Refuses To Deliver Muslim Cartoon

News from the Local reports that a Swedish mailing company has refused to distribute a political newspaper called SD-Kurien, because it features an "offensivie" cartoon of Islam's prophet Mohammed. The newspaper is the publicity organ of the far-right Sweden Democrats, who already are involved in an anti-immigration campaign.

The current issue of SD-Kurien features a cartoon by artist Lars Vilks, depicting Mohammed as a dog. The cartoon is one of a series that Vilks created, which drew adverse publicity when one of these was reproduced in Swedish local newspaper Nerikes Allehanda on August 18. Vilks has received death threats for his drawings. An art gallery refused to display the series, for fear of attacks.

The company which is refusing to distribute the SD-Kurien newspaper is Posten, Sweden's largest direct marketing company. Their decision is not apparently based on morality, but upon fear of violent reprisals from fundamentalist Muslims.

Per Ljungberg, a spokesman for Posten, said: "We want to protect the safety of our mail carriers. This illustration has provoked reactions that have led to death threats."

Today, another direct marketing company, Svensk Direktreklam, has announced that it too is refusing to distribute the SD-Kurien newspaper containing the Mohammed "dog" cartoon.

Jimmie Åkesson, leader of the Sweden Democrat party, issued a statement which said: "For both Posten and its main competitor to refuse to deliver information from a particular political party is a serious threat to free expression."

Meanwhile, Lars Vilks has decided to make the most of his death threats by working on a musical show based upon his Mohammed/dog cartoons. Echoing another stage musical called "Cats", Vilks has given a working title to the project - "Dogs".

Comparing his current oeuvre to the works of Andrew Lloyd Webber, Vilks said: "Muhammad is also a superstar in the modern sense of the term. We haven't decided yet if Muhammad will be portrayed by one or several people. Other characters featured will be the prime minister (of Sweden, Fredrik Reinfeldt), Iran's president (Mahmoud Ahmadinejad) and Al-Qaeda. They are best portrayed in musical form. We will also have an elegy by the "Choir of the Offended"."

Vilks brushed off the death threats, dismissing most of them as "scare tactics", and said that a sense of humor was necessary when dealing with the issue. He said to newspaper Dagens Nyheter: "It is part of the rules of the game to be able to criticize religion and politics. It is nothing personal and I do not have it in for anyone."

Another Swedish artist, 59-year old Stig Ramsing, decided to add to the climate of art, religion and offense by erecting a sculpture of Christ, depicted as a dog with oversized genitalia. The sculpture was placed on a traffic roundabout in the town of Skånes Fagerhult, in southern Sweden. Within hours of being set up, the sculpture mysteriously disappeared. It is highly unlikely that it "ascended into Heaven". No-one has claimed responsibility for the removing of the Jesus-as-dog statue.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at November 14, 2007 6:46 AM

Comments

Posted by: Celsius at November 17, 2007 11:01 AM

Post a comment