No Limit On Freedom Of Speech: Swedish Cartoonist Vilks

All that fuss and religious condemnation over those Swedish and Danish cartoons depicting the holy prophet Muhammad, the historical founder of Islam was supposed to settle down ages ago, but due to Jihad Jane’s merry attempt and failure at recruiting jihad fighters to assassinate the Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks has unfortunately provoked the good old controversy of the Muhammad drawings. In Islam, whether it’s Sunni or Shi’ite or any other branch, it is considered a huge insult to Muslims to idolize or draw Muhammed’s personal figure. Obviously the series of drawings showing Muhammad’s head on a dog’s body slapped the followers of Islam in the face back in 2007. This is not the first occassion to have sparked intense conflicts as the picture to the right prompted riots across the Islamic countries which unfortunately killed approximately 49 people.

A 2005 Danish cartoon depicting the Prophet Muhammad wearing a turban which is actually a bomb. You can see Muhammed's name in Arabic on the center of the bomb.

 

Reactions from the Islamic world surpassed normal anger and outrage at these cartoons and hit rewards up to 100,000$ were even issued by extremist groups for Lars Vilk’s head. A huge issue emerged between the Western world, specifically the media, and the Islamic populations on the subject of freedom of speech and how far it should be limited when concerning the areas of sensitive religions like Islam.

It sounds utterly silly when you’re observing the situation from further away, but at the same time it’s understandable because everyone in this world has each of their own culture and the believers of Islam specifically feels that their religion as part of their culture was just seriously insulted by a cartoonist over in the Western world. The situation becomes all irky and political once the spokesmen of Islamic governments step in and start to stamp such cartoons as “hateful” while the other side insists that it is simply the freedom of expressing oneself, the debate can go anywhere from that point.

This is the representation of Muhammad, as it can be observed there is no idol nor portrait of the holy figure in contrast to the other Abrahamic religions.

One of the more uncommon and ancient depictions of Prophet Muhammad.

The Swedish cartoonist Vilks stated that the cartoons were simply being satirical and were not created for political purposes. Since 2007, he has received a rather decent amount of death threats and has prepared himself for cases when trespassers come to try to kill him at his house. After Jihad Jane’s arrest for conspiring to murder this venerable, 64 year old cartoonist, seven individuals (4 Males, 3 Females) in Ireland were arrested for also plotting the murder of Lars Vilks.

One of the satirical series of sketches depicting Muhammad's head on a dog's body.

Western media has defended the right to the freedom of speech or expression that although these cartoons may undoubtedly offend many in the world along with the reactions toward it that the cartoon is now one of the numerous, modern icons of freedom of speech. Numerous artists, after these sketches of Muhammad were released, were inspired to do the same by drawing more depictions of the Prophet Muhammed leading to strained debates between the two sides.

 I concur with the defendants of freedom of speech, no matter how offending the products may be one cannot simply crush a basic human right to express oneself in order to perserve simply one part of a culture. Freedom of speech is vital for the progress of society and ultimately humanity, without the security of this one right all other rights and privileges tumble down as news, art, books, and actions are restricted to venture into new areas. What then is left of a culture’s progress, for that matter, what remains of culture?

There are entire websites, blogs, books, movies like WhyWontGodHealAmputees, lolgod.blogspot, Religulous and so on devoted to mocking or skeptically criticizing the numerous religions of today’s world.There are also governments condemning religious actions, and certainly many artists out there poke fun or deliver a message about any religion and everything else in the world. What is offensive to one culture isn’t to another, yet unfortunately even in the 21st century we still see examples of extreme vows to harshly punish those who break “holy” laws and the misunderstanding of each other’s culture.  

Swedish newspapers have begun to reprint the 2007 sketches of Muhammad once again, which will more than likely provoke even more dangerous responses from those of the Islamic world who are against it. Yet the Swedish newspapers have claimed that the cartoonist Vilks “is not alone in this conflict” as the Western world will also more than likely stand by him once again.

- Authored By: Anonymously Yours

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  • ilyas

    poorly depicted cartoons. One can see how much the cartoonist is ill educated. islam is a religon of peace and Islam is not a religon of muslims only but the whole world one excepts it or not does not matter. cartoonist is only adding his dirty work to malign the religon and he and his fellows will surely not succeed and they will live and die like dogs.

  • ditka

    Vilks-poor boy, you looks himself like a maniak,and you dont have right to offend something that is holly from the God, you have to have respect about that. Be carefull !!!

  • sobercounsel

    Ilyas, “Religion of peace”, you are surely joking? Kidnappings, beheadings, mass murder, oppression of women, beating and killing girls going to school, imprisoning people for “offending islam”, threats to anyone who says how silly islam and islamists are… and the list goes on. See Dikta’s threat in these emails. We don’t do this any more in Europe. We grew out of that nonsense after hundreds of years of religious madness. I just hope we don’t slip back into the foolishness.

    • not telling

      huh i now right fools like u have nothing but kidnapp people and balme it on islam so be quiet and go fool around like a fool dummy

  • azmat shah

    viks is fliplping pathetic he is a coward.such a man who dosnt respect his self how could he respect the greatest of creation the mercy to mankind prophet muhammed peace be upon him.if a muslim was in his place he wud be arressted n called n terrorist.islamist,extremeist etc etc and then shipped to quntanmo bay.you people wiill see very soon islam will spread increasingly and all other religions or IDOLS will finish.and for a dog like viks well people like him have come and gone.

  • Jean

    Viks is right to draw those cartoons. Nobody has a right to tell others what they can and cannot express, religious or otherwise.

    The notion that religion is a source of peace, is laughable and it’s time we stopped letting these deluded bigots get away with their superstitious violence. I support him wholeheartedly.

  • azmat shah

    sobercounsel islam is a religion of peace you just dont want to believe it due to ur arrogane and pride.you say kidnappings,beheading and mass murders is a part of terroism so wot the hell are your so called soldiers doing in afghanistan fliping spriing wash cleaning ur soldiers are doing the same to the afghan people.u fear the sharia law becoz it is the ONE law that has a strong foundation.unlike other laws that is like the froth on the sea. how do muslims desrespect women wen our Quran has given a women such a big status such as THE PROPHET JESUS who u call god who was his parent she was a WOMEN so wot are u talking about. we teach our women to GUARD their modesty n respect their beauty and ornaments.but wot WE dnt allow is to flirt wth men or drink alcohlol till ur leggless.or have kids n still go around fornicating etc etc etc etc.well we dont beat our girls for going to schools if anything we encourge them to be educated its a teaching of islam.muslims jus wudnt want to send there childern to a school where there children wud have friends whos mums name is jack and fathers name is john.let me ask you 1.question 20 years ago gay marrige was band but nw its legal coz THEY cant help itTHATS the way they feel well what if peodes do the same and then rapists and then pervs?
    .iff u offend is islam u should be punished straight foward if i criticise your religion you would do much much worser so dont start that bxxxxxxt .for you ur religion is differant coz times have changed.but for the muslims like i said islam is a firm foundatoin so even if its a million years its neva gona change u

  • azmat shah

    well jean u lot draw pics and images and statues of YOUR religion so obvisly ur nt gna stop a with us.people like ur lot have cum n gne bt REMEMBER this you can NEVA stop or change islam .islam will grow and prevail over everything that is false .so you can put you thoerys or ideas somewhere where the sun dont shine.but back to the cartoons u will have to answer for that

  • Hottie

    Islam doesn’t seem to do well in teaching its believers how to spell.

    • mansoor

      yea i bet ur teaching skills are way lower than islams

  • Bill

    Wow azmat, you’re right, of course, Islam has been such a successful system throughout the world, of course it will come to dominate. After all look at the mass emigration from the west to all those Islamic cultures to take advantage of all the great opportunities they have to offer. And virtually no traffic the other way eh? Why didn’t I see this before?! Of course islam has all the answers. Mohammed was truly a divine genius! Yeah right mate. Call us when you wake up in the 21st century. Traditional Islam will weaken and die in the west within a generation, about the same time as the saudi oil money runs out and the middle east goes back to being a bunch of warring tribes that no one gives a sh*t about. Some future that. C’mon down off your high horse and join the party. The water’s lovely.

    • mansoor

      islam will never come down it always rises up and guess wat i have heard theres way better water in heavens

  • azmat shah

    bill let me explain to u one thing this is the twenty first centry woopi fxxxxn doo.ur country is soo advanced so clever u have all the top scientists yeh n top ideas .well let me tell you one thing matey your science it comes from the quran the thing that your so called scientists are coming out wiv in the 21stCENTUARY prophet muhammed peace be upon him proved all this 1438yrs ago check it out if u think WE are lying n ull see who is talking crap.n about the prophet muhammed peace be upon him i dont have to tell u anything bt get UR BIBLE THE OLD TESTAMENT DEUTRONOMY .and ull find ur answers in there.let me explain sumat to u all islam will neva finish people have come b4 who tried to finish islam bt nothing happened.then there was the crusaders n they failed miserably and soon after accepted islam so .in the quraan allah mentions THEY PLAN AND THEY PLOT AND ALLAH PLANS AND ALLAH IS THE BEST OF PLANNERS,so you see wot your saying now is wot we expect from you.

  • http://michaelz michael z wilson

    Islam is the stupidest foolishest bullshixxest religion. Muslims are the foolishest folks on the earth. Ha ha ha….

    • mansoor

      huh fools like u dont even now wat ur writing as they say mouth goes faster then the brain

  • azmat shah

    micheal foolish are those people who fall waste side to thier desires e.g. Money,women.greed.selfishness,pride,arrogane etc etc n the list goes on and if islam is bad for not worshipping a STATUE n then thats your opinion bt islam is the only 1 religion that dosnt bow to a priest,idol,budda,statues,or people

  • Finny

    Azmat Shah, you bow towards a city, you pray 5 times per day, you believe a guy flew up into the sky, the Quran is ridiculous it has no shred of science in it, you also believe that women should be suppressed because a religion forbids women to dress/act/be in certain ways.

    • mansoor

      yea we do pray 5 times a day and we read the quran and the quran dosent need any science stuff with it cause we belive in it

  • Bill

    Azmat (is that short for hazardous material haha!?) Didn’t bother to read your answer, you’ve got nothing to say. My post was nothing more sophisticated than a purile ‘yah-boo’ back at you, as there is no level of debate in anything you say. “Oh yes there is”, “oh no there isn’t” ad nauseam – yawn…

    • mansoor

      fool like u cant read so y bother u read

  • Bill

    with any luck my last post will cause Azmat to blow a fuse and natural selection will do its job.

  • azmat shah

    Finni we dnt pray to a city we all pray in one direction which is the centre of the earth OUR direction is towards the kaaba but intentions is for allah n allah alone.we might believe that prophet muhammed went to a certain place in a certain period of time which is hard for some people to believe.but dont your scholars or sum foolish people that come on GOD channel or gospel t.v or etc etc etc say that theyve been visited by angels .nw listening to that makes me sick coz a persom whos been lying.swearing cheating fornicating idol worshipping etc etc etc etc etc all their life all of a sudden gets visited by angels .plz

  • azmat shah

    oh yeh sorry finni i forgot one more thing drinking alchol n eating pigs.your science has proved that the closest animal genetically to a human is a pig .it has similar organs and the list goes on.and dnt forget in YOUR BIBLE jesus mentions how he put mentle disease into the pigs n you eat them after they was cursed by the prophet jesus peace be upon him

  • azmat shah

    sophisticated sophisticated hahhahahahahaha if u was really intelligent and wise AND sophisticated u wudnt wana debate ud check UR BIBLE THE OLD TESTAMENT DEUTRARONOMY n get ur answers bt coz of ur arrogane ur nt going to check it out its nt me thats short of a fuse its ur devious minds.ur wise ur toooooooo clever for us OK ! ur sooo clever that you cnt read ur own books coz you knw ur wrong ive got nothing to be worried about

  • Finny

    Dear Azmat Shah, you sir are a religious bigot. You have no clue about “our” science as the chimpanzee, not the pig, is the animal genetically closest to a human. The Bible is as ridiculous as the Quran, such Abrahamic religions are short-sighted, full of sexism, racism, supportive of slavery, contains instruction to give unequal treatment of others who do not worship the same God, gives poor understanding of the world around us and so forth. The only thing I can say to you now is to learn proper English and actually look at the thousands of religions and their thousands of denominations and then see which one is right instead of ignorantly clinging onto a religion you were raised into.

  • Jim

    Azmat – Buddhists don’t worship Buddha. “Buddha” is a title that means “awakened one”. Becoming a Buddha happens when one reaches a state of freedom from worldly issues such as hatred, greed, ignorance, and individual existence. In your religious framework, you would call this Greater Jihad, the victory over your internal conflict.

    The representation of Buddha is simply a reminder of the man who originally taught enlightenment, and the acknowledgement offered to the statue is more of a greeting to a professor than worship. We don’t worship the statue any more than you worship Mecca. Buddhists are more than happy to acknowledge any and all gods, as each of the different religions are intertwined in all humans, as we are part of the same family. Don’t fight – Respect each other and promote harmony through understanding. That is what Buddhists believe.

    Azmat – no good comes from attacking someone’s religious beliefs. It only promotes attacks and misunderstanding from others.

    To the others – look back at Azmat’s postings and note that there appear to be multiple people posting as this name. March 12th shows him/her stating “muhammed”, while March 11th shows “muhammed, peace be upon him”, as is proper for the devout Muslim. March 12th @ 12:20 also shows a marked improvement in spelling – then goes back to poor spelling @ 12:33. Don’t be drawn into conflict by these people.

  • Salik Ul-Haqq

    This message is for Finny. There maybe Muslims who oppress women, however, this is a cultural phenomena and has nothing to do with Islam. If you do any research you would find that what you consider to be ‘oppression’ is actually a way of protecting society from the problems that arise with ‘free-love’ such as; Herpes, gonorrhea, HIV/AIDS, unwanted children, etc. The work of Judith Riesmann at <> explains how pornography adversely effects the brain. Thus, science proves that the wisdom found in keeping men away from women has been reinforced by modern science. Your pseudo-intellectual point of view has been given to you by those who wish to create order out of chaos. You may scoff, you may laugh, you may never ever return to this sight. However, the wisdom of the Abrahamic religions, most of the worlds religions, culminate and reach their height of fruition is the religion of Islam properly practiced. This Lars Vilks guy is just the product of a society that has no respect for anyone, including itself. That is the bottom line, it is not about free speech because if it was then the so-called Holocaust deniers would not be jailed because all of you would not allow it under the guise of free-speech. Thus your hypocrisy is exposed.

  • Azmat shah

    salik brother respect they needed that lol.in their eyes the muslims are the worst the dirtiest etc etc etc.bt then why is it that
    1.under age pregnancies
    2.rapes
    3.peodos
    4.faggets . Being a fagget also causes aids VIKS
    5.hivs
    6.aids
    7.diseases
    8.guneara
    n oh yeh if u watch t.v ull see every morning on jeremy kyle its always non muslims with the same stories they dont knw who the father is.top lad salik may allah reward you

  • Azmat shah

    sory I MISSED sumthing all of these 8 dirty things happen to non muslims.

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  • Miguel

    All of those 8 dirty things also happen to Muslims. That and being stoned to death or having their hands cut off by the likes of ignorant fools like you.

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