Irish police arrest 7 on murder plot charges

[The_Dude 1,142]

Irish police arrest 7 on murder plot charges

(CNN) -- Irish police arrested seven people Tuesday suspected of plotting to commit a murder abroad, they announced.

Irish media reports said the target was Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks, who drew a cartoon of the Muslim prophet Mohammed with the body of a dog in 2007, prompting al Qaeda to offer $100,000 to anyone who killed him -- plus an extra $50,000 if the killer slits his throat. The Irish press reports cited unnamed police sources.

Irish police did not confirm that Vilks was the target, but responded to a CNN question about Vilks by saying the arrests were "part of an investigation into a conspiracy to commit a serious offense, namely, conspiracy to murder an individual in another jurisdiction."

Four men and three women were arrested by Irish police in Waterford and Cork, authorities said. They range in age from mid-20s to late 40s.

Ireland's national broadcaster RTE said the suspects are originally from Morocco and Yemen, but are all living legally as refugees in Ireland.

Irish police worked with counterparts in the United States and "a number of European countries," they said.

Vilks, the cartoonist reportedly at the center of the plot, told CNN he had drawn the cartoon of Mohammed with a dog's body in order to take a stand.

"It should be possible to insult all religions in a democratic way, " Vilks told CNN at his home in rural Sweden in 2007, after the controversy erupted. "If you insult one, then you should insult the other ones."

Dogs are considered unclean by conservative Muslims, and any depiction of the prophet is strictly forbidden.

Vilks said his drawing was a calculated move, and he wanted it to elicit a reaction.

"That's a way of expressing things. If you don't like it, don't look at it. And if you look at it, don't take it too seriously. No harm done, really," he said.

When it's suggested that might prove an arrogant -- if not insulting -- way to engage Muslims, he is unrelenting, even defiant.

"No one actually loves the truth, but someone has to say it," he says.

Vilks, a self-described atheist, points out he's an equal opportunity offender who in the past sketched a depiction of Jesus as a pedophile.

His cartoon came on the heels of Muslim outrage about cartoons originally published in Denmark in 2005. The republication of the cartoons several months later sparked violent protests in the Muslim world and prompted death threats against at least one cartoonist's life.

Vilks' cartoon, which was published in August 2007 by the Swedish newspaper Nerikes Allehanda, did not provoke that level of global protests, although it has stoked plenty of outrage.

Muslims in Sweden demanded an apology from the newspaper, which stood by Vilks. Pakistan and Iran also lodged formal protests with Sweden.

Source

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Everyone should make cartoons of that so-called prophet. They'll learn eventually, this is just how we roll. Nothing is sacred and if you think your beliefs mean something to us, well fuсk you - they don't.

[mawilson 2,133]

Ah, the religion of tolerance and peace.

[mawilson 2,133]

Everyone should make cartoons of that so-called prophet. They'll learn eventually, this is just how we roll. Nothing is sacred and if you think your beliefs mean something to us, well fuсk you - they don't.

You just gave me an idea....

[The_Dude 1,142]

To be fair, how many religions are complacent, or even able to laugh when they are the target of satire or ridicule?

You just gave me an idea....

New idea for munitions for the baby bombs?

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

To be fair, how many religions are complacent, or even able to laugh when they are the target of satire or ridicule?

and how many of them spend years trying to assassinate the people who "ridiculed" them?

this is khomeini all over again. the fuсkfaces need to get used to the fact this their faith isn't sacred to us.

Edited March 9, 2010 by w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r

[The_Dude 1,142]

and how many of them spend years trying to assassinate the people who "ridiculed" them?

this is khomeini all over again. the fuсkfaces need to get used to the fact this their faith isn't sacred to us.

Hell no, the only thing sacred to us is the almighty dollar, and bacon cheeseburgers with freedom fries.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Hell no, the only thing sacred to us is the almighty dollar, and bacon cheeseburgers with freedom fries.

we make fun of fast food and capitalists all the time.

in the west, nothing is sacred. and that happens to be its best quality.

[Nagishkaw 510]

It's so silly, if you think about it. Putting a bounty on someone over a fvcking cartoon, yet an image of Christ in a bottle of urine 'considered' as art was put on exhibit and no one was looking to snuff out that artist.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

It's so silly, if you think about it. Putting a bounty on someone over a fvcking cartoon, yet an image of Christ in a bottle of urine 'considered' as art was put on exhibit and no one was looking to snuff out that artist.

christians only resort to terrorism when they wanna kill abortion doctors

[Nagishkaw 510]

christians only resort to terrorism when they wanna kill abortion doctors

They are just as bad.

[The_Dude 1,142]

christians only resort to terrorism when they wanna kill abortion doctors

Or to be their own country

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Or to be their own country

the theological republic of biblicalstan

[sandinista! 1,816]

It's so silly, if you think about it. Putting a bounty on someone over a fvcking cartoon, yet an image of Christ in a bottle of urine 'considered' as art was put on exhibit and no one was looking to snuff out that artist.

simply not true. andres serrano has received plenty of death threats throughout his career, and had his government art grants yanked away because his work offended christians.

http://www.communityarts.net/readingroom/a...ting_the_kl.php

when universal tried to release the last temptation of christ:

As matters worsened and death threats increased, Universal installed guards on every floor of the studio and put in bulletproof glass near the reception desk. Some Universal executives received bloody pigs and voodoo dolls at their homes, and the FBI warned that the white supremacist group Aryan Nations had targeted Wasserman and others for assassination. Expressions of outrage about the film also came from as far away as Calcutta from Mother Teresa and from within the U.S. government, when three Republicans cosponsored a “sense of congress” resolution calling for Universal to withdraw the picture and for citizens not to patronize businesses associated with the studio. Theatrical screenings in the United States were accompanied by bomb threats, demonstrations, a slashed screen and stolen print, weapon-carrying moviegoers, and at one venue an appearance of the Lookout Mountain Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. Universal spent over a million dollars on security, reducing the film’s already minuscule domestic profit.

http://www.cineaste.com/articles/emhollywo...-culture-warsem

[sandinista! 1,816]

ooh, and i forgot cosimo cavallaro and his chocolate jesus. received enough death threats to get his exhibition shut down. http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles...ter_complaints/

all that, over candy.