Swedish Cartoonist Receives Threats From Somalia

By Abdulaziz Billow Ali

A Swedish artist who angered Muslims in 2007 for his caricature of the Holy Prophet Mohammed said on Monday that he had received two threatening phone calls from Somalia. Lars Vilks said a man who spoke poor Swedish asked him if he saw the attempt on another cartoonist in Denmark Kurt Westergaard’s who was almost killed by a Somali man. Late Friday a Somali-born man armed with an axe, and a knife, broke into Westergaard’s home in western Denmark, but arrested by police alerted by the cartoonist who sought refuge in a specially secured room.

The cartoon sparked outrage worldwide in 2006 as Muslims marched unto the streets to condemn it as an infringement on their religion. The Swedish artist received several threats in 2007 and a bounty of 100,000 dollars was placed on his head by an Iraq-based insurgency group after the caricature was published.