10 most wanted (dead of course) by al-Qaida
Don’t let anyone tell you Islamic terrorists ignore or devalue the arts.
Artists, writers and journalists apparently occupy the highest and loftiest spots from al-Qaida’s vantage, and their Most Wanted hit list of 2013 proves it. With almost a full house (8 of 11 slots-o-doom) reserved for practitioners of the arts, writers and filmmakers should take a moment to feel the power.
Who knew mere wordsmiths and paint dabbers wielded such shock and awe? Apparently the editors of al-Qaida’s innocuously named “Inspire” magazine do, which is quite impressive. Considering that neither George Bush, Tony Blair nor any military or political types even make the cut, al-Qaida obviously believes the pen is mightier than the sword (and crescent moon). Clearly al-Qaida is waging a war on our words, our images and our thoughts as expressed through the media.
“Inspire” was the official mouthpiece for Bin Laden and al-Awlaki, so we know it’s the real deal. Where “Good Housekeeping” offers recipes for Mulligatawny stew, “Inspire” details how to “Make a Bomb in the Kitchen of Your Mom” with the pressure cooker – which someone did. Their glossy 2010 edition encouraged proselytizing road tours – by driving into crowds of people.
Six of the honorees of Islamic hate, death and endlessly bitter invective are related to cartoons. Are cartoonists and novelists the world’s leading counter-jiahdists?
Unwilling martyr nominee Kurt Westergaard’s 2005 drawing (of Muhammad with bomb/turban) set off a chain reaction of psychosis in Islamic Denmark. Not only is it unabated to this day, but the sickness also spread to the art community and Parliament.
Jyllands-Posten former newspaper editors Carsten Juste and Flemming Rose still rank high on the death-threat index. Publishing Westergaard and other representations of Muhammad, they tested if Islamic threats could utterly silence press freedom. Apparently Denmark lost.
Cartoon-Gate II continued when drawings by Swedish artist Lars Vilks were violently rejected by Muslims in 2006, but that only encouraged him to fight back. He does, however, sleep with an ax beside his bed.
Author Salman Rushdie famously ticked off Ayatollah Khomeini with his 1988 “The Satanic Verses,” forcing the Islamist leader to order the most publicized fatwa in modern times – along with a series of riots, bombings murders and so forth. The bounty for offing Rushdie is constantly ratcheting up, a clear sign of the monetary value of (silencing) the arts to Islamists. As of 2012 assassins are promised Ł3.3 million pounds payable by Iran’s Khordad Foundation (a uniquely Islamic form of book editing).
Molly Norris is a Seattle artist who innocently suggested an “Everybody Draw Muhammad Day” (in 2010) protesting censorship and in hopes and creating a much larger, less personal target. Poor Molly actually believed “everyone” (meaning fellow artists) would draw Muhammad in a lovely gesture of liberal peace, love and harmony, thereby removing the stigma. But the majority of the arts community was still busy revising anti-Bush posters or other important progressive matters. Molly is “memorialized” at the Facebook page “Molly Norris Died For You.”
Stephane Charbonnier, editor of the satirical French magazine Charlie Hedbo, was forced to defend himself in court, survive firebombings and even nastier attacks from colleagues when he dared to satirize Muhammad in 2006. Charbonnier insists on the right to mock all religions equally, a French tradition.
Morris Sadek is an Egyptian-American Coptic Christian, roundly hated and reviled because he translated the YouTube video “Innocence of Muslims” into Arabic, which forced millions of Muslims to watch it and riot. Sadek also forced President Obama to rush to the U.N. to denounce and blame him (and Nakoula Basseley Nakoula) for the administration’s gross incompetence in Libya.
Merely three individuals on al-Qaida’s hate list don’t qualify as any type of artist, but even two of these are authors: Geert Wilders, who founded the Dutch “Party for Freedom” and openly claims to “hate Islam,” and Ayaan Hirsi Ali, author, women’s rights activist and former Dutch politician.
Last but not least in al-Qaida’s cross hairs is Koran-burning Pastor Terry Jones. The religious fetish of Islamists, Jones was their centerfold in a 2013 “Inspire” magazine, with creative editing of a bullet through the brain. Jones feels fine about the smoking pages and offers no apologies yet.
Most on al-Qaida’s snuff list are unrepentant and gutsy in the face of threats. Molly Norris is the exception, as she apparently evaporated from this earth and is probably re-imagined in another life via FBI magic somewhere.
Lars Vilks and his Roundabout Dog Tour
Lars Vilks
On the positive side, Islamic hate has surged attendance and activities at recent European art events. Many of these “enthusiastic” audience responses are to the work and speeches of Swedish painter Lars Vilks, who has refused to cower and hide in the face of many threats.
Demanding a right to free speech, he insists, “This must be carried through. … You cannot allow it to be stopped.”
Hans Erling Jensen initiated Vilks’ “Roundabout Dog Tour” in 2013 at the Malmo, Sweden Islamic Center (founded by deceased Col. Qaddafi.)
“It is our hope,” claimed Jensen, “to start discussions about freedom of speech.”
Malmo is essentially “Ground Clueless” for Western groveling and human sacrifice of free expression.
Deliberately insulting the Prophet with Muhammad/dog-head hybrids is about Vilks’ only weapon against the worldwide jihad and fatwa against him. In response to some impromptu prayer meetings with hundreds shouting “Allahu Akbar!” and a series of assaults, however, he created a home “panic room” and booby-trapped some of his art with shock devices.
Vilks and friends placed caricatures of Muhammad in public venues in Sweden and other European nations to make a point about freedom of expression. They don’t last long, and he risks arrest, which is the illustrative point. He gets great press though, even in Somalia, where Al-Shabab made a 2010 video in his honor encouraging “all the Somali brothers and sisters” in Sweden to return to fight for Al-Shabaab – but first a death threat against Lars Vilks.
Specifically, “Now will your children, daughters and sisters die … as long as you don’t end your war against Islam and degradation against the Prophet and your foolish support for the pig Vilks.”
His political pets were first published by the Swedish daily “Nerikes Allehanda” in 2007 and live through purchases online.
As with other non-submissive artists and writers, Vilks was rejected by most “respectable” society and lost most of his income and livelihood. In response, he now creates anti-Jihadist paintings that he sells online as limited-edition, fine art prints. If you have always wanted to join the counterinsurgency, it’s far easier to support Vilks and possibly avoid your own personal fatwa.
“Free Speech Europe” sponsors Vilks and is a non-political association that supports victims of “blacklisting” or other forms of persecution “because of their artistic or political expression.” Vilks personally introduces his original art and reveals what it is to live under Islamic siege in touring exhibitions sponsored by Free Speech Europe – possibly in a town near you.
In this latest effort, Vilks proves his mettle as a fine artist in a mad world. Although his latest projects are appropriations of classic paintings and open propaganda, he displays beautiful skill in painting technique along with deliberately inflammatory content.
Vilks’ parody of Vermeer’s “The Lacer”
Vilks’ set of four satirically imitated paintings include a version of Jan Vermeer’s “The Lacer” with Muhammad/dog mutation balanced in the foreground. Carravagio’s “David Victorious over Goliath” is simplified and modernized but quite striking. David triumphantly holds Muhammad’s head rather than Goliath’s.
More trendy and light is Vilks’ variation of the 16th century “Gabrielle d’Estrées and One of Her Sisters in the Bath” featuring a Roundabout Dog T-shirt on the famed royal mistress.
Especially significant is his take on the female Italian Baroque painter Artemisia Gentileschi, whose paintings featured strong women from the Bible, both detestable things to Islamic fundamentalists. His parody boasts a (very tasteful) nude woman with pet Muhammad balanced on the edge of her bed.
Recently the owner of Swedish gallery Rönnquist & Quist, who held the December 2013 opening of a Lars Vilks show, was forced to hide the name of both his apartment door and gate after threatening “graffiti” appeared.
Helping the cause (of the terrorists) was Malmo Mayor Ilmar Reepalu, who pathetically discouraged the show claiming it to be “associated with xenophobes.” Other useless statements include, “But as far as I can gather, this is pretty bad art, and I think they want to use the gallery for political ends.”
Wow, Swedish artists have never used art “for political ends” before. It must be intimidating to a mayor who has apparently had little experience with politics and finds art so terrifying he calls an emergency meeting to deal with paintings.
According to “The Local,” some observers seemed frightened that “the show would provoke a violent reaction.” I find this concern oddly misplaced in a spot considered the rape capitol of Europe (by Muslims, perpetrated on Swedish women), if not the world.
Vilks’ new paintings include his versions of works by Claude Monet, Peter Paul Rubens and Anders Zorn. Gallery owner and curator are prepared for whatever lies ahead.
“But the initial fear subsided after a while, and this strengthens me in my struggle for freedom of expression and makes things positive. They think they can break me, but they cannot,” the (temporarily anonymous) gallerist promised to Exponerat.
He must keep an eye on his mailbox, however, which was recently gifted with seven black stones, an Islamic sign of threatened death.
Americans have not been lax to help persecute Vilks. Colleen LaRose, AKA Jihad Jane, was convicted for scheming to kill him in Europe along with seven others. Rose successfully conscripted a band of thugs including Mohammad Hassan Khalid, the youngest person officially labeled a terrorist in the United States (arrested at 15).
Jensen spoke on his hopes for Free Speech Europe, saying they “wish to draw attention to the fact that freedom of expression has increasingly tighter conditions in the easily offended multicultural Europe.”
Will other artists join them or continue to sketch while Sweden burns?
Sources: The Local (Swedish news in English) / The Wire / Dashiell Bennett / http://larsvilks.tumblr.com/ John R. Houk / BarenakedIslam.com / TT news agency / AFP news agency