John R. Houk
© March 2, 2013
1. Carsten Luste (should be Juste), Danish journalist, former editor of Jyllands-Posten
2. Terry Jones, President of Stand Up America Now
3. Kurt Westergaard, Danish cartoonist
4. Geert Wilders, Dutch politician
5. Lars Vilks, Swedish cartoonist
6. Stephane Charbonnier, French editor of Charlie Hebdo
7. Flemming Rose, Danish journalist
8. Morris Sadek, Copt Christian who promoted Innocence of Muslims
9. Salman Rushdie, author
10. Ayaan Hirsi Ali, author (not pictured - she does not wear a veil)
Carsten Luste (Juste)
The newspaper published the cartoons when a Danish author complained that he could find no-one to illustrate his book about Muhammad. Jyllands-Posten wondered whether there were more cases of self-censorship regarding Islam in Denmark and asked twelve illustrators to draw the prophet for them. Carsten Juste, the paper’s editor, said the cartoons were a test of whether the threat of Islamic terrorism had limited the freedom of expression in Denmark.
The publication led to outrage among the Muslim immigrants living in Denmark. 5,000 of them took to the streets to protest. Muslim organisations have demanded an apology, but Juste rejects this idea: “We live in a democracy. That’s why we can use all the journalistic methods we want to. Satire is accepted in this country, and you can make caricatures,” he said. The Danish imam Raed Hlayhel reacted with the statement: “This type of democracy is worthless for Muslims. Muslims will never accept this kind of humiliation. The article has insulted every Muslim in the world.” (Jihad Against Danish Newspaper; by Paul Belien; Brussels Journal; 10/22/05)
Terry Jones
Kurt Westergaard
The Danish cartoonist whose caricature of the Islamic Prophet Mohammed sparked global Muslim riots seven years ago says he has no regrets, and wants no censors.
Speaking in an interview this week with the Austrian magazine “News,” Kurt Westergaard said that freedom of speech is too precious to relinquish. ”Should we in future let ourselves be censored by Islamic authorities in deeply undemocratic countries?” he asked.
Westergaard’s question carried particular relevance in his own personal life: in 2010, he nearly died in an assassination attempt by a Muslim extremist wielding an axe. The would-be murderer, 29-year-old Mohamed Geele, was convicted of attempted terrorism and attempted murder and sentenced to a nine-year prison term in Denmark. He will be deported after serving his time in prison.
Muslims around the world said the image of the Prophet Mohammed drawn by Westergaard, which they believed mocked Islam, had offended them. In response, there were worldwide riots and violence that resulted in a number of deaths. (READ THE REST: Danish ‘Mohammed’ cartoonist Kurt Westergaard has no regrets, opposes censorship; By Chana Ya’ar; Reposted on 1389 Blog - Counterjihad! – 9/21/13)
Geert Wilders
Geert Wilders is a Dutch politician and the founder and leader of the Party for Freedom, the fourth-largest political party in the Netherlands. Wilders is the Parliamentary group leader of his party in the Dutch House of Representatives.
Lars Vilks
Lars Vilks, Swedish artist/Cartoonist spoke on September 11, 2012 at the Stop Islamization of Nations' International Freedom Defense Council held at the UN Plaza Millennium Hotel.
Here is some recent info on Lars Vilks from Before It’s News:
Swedish artist and sculptor Lars Vilk- who gained international notoriety for pushing the limits of freedom of expression by drawing the head of the Prophet Mohammed on the body of a dog in 2007 and was subsequently targeted for death by offended Muslims, and was then attacked at a lecture on freedom of speech in 2010- has some new paintings of Mohammad ready to exhibit. The exhibition is set for July this year, in Malmö, Sweden- a city that is heavily populated by Muslims. Vilks believes:
"It's important to continue because if you yield to the threats and back away, you have abandoned the democratic principle."
His Mohammed dog drawing was published in 2007 along with an editorial on freedom of expression in the Swedish paper Nerikes Allehanda after several gallery exhibits pulled the Mohammed drawings because of security concerns.
but this time: (READ THE REST: Lars Vilks Has More Mohammed Drawings To Exhibit, In Spite Of Death Threats; Before It’s News; 2/21/13 13:40)
Stephane Charbonnier
The offices of the French 'Private Eye' style satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo have been destroyed in a petrol bomb attack in Paris.
It came after the publication named the Prophet Mohammad as its editor-in-chief for its latest issue. The cover of the magazine carried a picture of Muhammad making a joke.
The real editor of Charlie Hebdo, Stephanie Charbonnier, said Islam could not be excluded from freedom of the press. He said: "If we can poke fun at everything in France, if we can talk about anything in France apart from Islam or the consequences of Islamism, that is annoying."
The editor said the magazine had received several threats prior to the attack.
He continued: "This is the first time we have been physically attacked but we won't let it get to us." (READ THE REST: French 'Private Eye' attacked in Paris over Mohammad joke; By “Civil Liberty Correspondent;” Civil Liberty; 11/6/11)
Flemming Rose
Childish. Irresponsible. Hate speech. A provocation just for the sake of provocation. A PR stunt. Critics of 12 cartoons of the prophet Muhammad published in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten have not minced their words. They say that freedom of expression does not imply an endorsement of insulting people's religious feelings, and besides, they add, the media censor themselves every day. So, please do not teach us a lesson about limitless freedom of speech.
I agree that the freedom to publish things doesn't mean you publish everything. Jyllands-Posten would not publish pornographic images or graphic details of dead bodies; swear words rarely make it into our pages. So we are not fundamentalists in our support for freedom of expression.
But the cartoon story is different.
Those examples have to do with exercising restraint because of ethical standards and taste; call it editing. By contrast, I commissioned the cartoons in response to several incidents of self-censorship in Europe caused by widening fears and feelings of intimidation in dealing with issues related to Islam. And I still believe that this is a topic that we Europeans must confront, challenging moderate Muslims to speak out. The idea wasn't to provoke gratuitously -- and we certainly didn't intend to trigger violent demonstrations throughout the Muslim world. Our goal was simply to push back self-imposed limits on expression that seemed to be closing in tighter.
…
This is the sort of debate that Jyllands-Posten had hoped to generate when it chose to test the limits of self-censorship by calling on cartoonists to challenge a Muslim taboo. Did we achieve our purpose? Yes and no. Some of the spirited defenses of our freedom of expression have been inspiring. But tragic demonstrations throughout the Middle East and Asia were not what we anticipated, much less desired. Moreover, the newspaper has received 104 registered threats, 10 people have been arrested, cartoonists have been forced into hiding because of threats against their lives and Jyllands-Posten's headquarters have been evacuated several times due to bomb threats. This is hardly a climate for easing self-censorship.
… (READ IN ENTIRITY: Why I Published Those Cartoons; By Flemming Rose; Washington Post; 2/19/06)
Morris Sadek
…
Religion News Service (RNS) is reporting that Morris Sadek, an Egyptian-born Coptic Christian, translated the movie into Arabic and sent it to Egyptian journalists. He also allegedly promoted it on his web site and through social media, the outlet reports. RNS has more about his background:
Morris Sadek describes himself as a human rights attorney and president of a small group called the National American Coptic Assembly, based in Chantilly, Va. Sadek says on his website that he is a member of the Egyptian and District of Columbia bar associations who has “defended major human rights cases” including the late Coptic Pope Shenouda III, who died in March.
But fellow Copts depict Sadek as a fringe figure and publicity hound whose Islamophobic invectives disrupt Copts’ quest for equal rights in Egypt.
Michael Meunier, president of U.S. Copts Association, claims that, by taking these actions, Sadek was likely looking for fame in Egyptian media. Considering that he lost his Egyptian citizenship and was banned from the country back in 2011, it makes sense that he would potentially be looking to raise his profile in the region.
Here’s a video that purportedly shows him screaming “Islam is evil!” outside of the National Press Building in Washington, D.C.:
…
…
On Sept. 6, Mr. Sadek sent an email to journalists around the world promoting a Sept. 11 event held by Rev. Terry Jones, the Florida pastor who previously sparked deadly protests by burning a copy of the Quran. In the email, Mr. Sadek included a link to the 14-minute YouTube clip.
… (READ IN ENTIRITY: This Is the Man Who Reportedly Translated & Sent the Anti-Muhammad Film to Egyptian Journalists; By Billy Hallowell; The Blaze; 9/14/12 1:00pm)
Salman Rushdie
Salman Rushdie is a British author who was born in India. In 1988, he wrote the highly acclaimed book, The Satanic Verses. Shortly after that, India banned the book. In the U.S., the publisher received bomb threats. The book was then banned in South Africa. Soon, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Somalia, Bangladesh, Sudan, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Qatar banned the book. There were book burnings in England. In Pakistan, six people died and 100 were injured in demonstrations against the book. Then on Feb. 12, 1989, the Ayatollah Khomeini, leader of Iran, declared that the book was blasphemous, and called for the death of Rushdie. Rushdie went into hiding, with protection by the British government. An Iranian charity offered a million dollars reward (later raised to 2.5 million) for Rushdie's murder. Two bookstores in Berkeley California were firebombed. Twelve people died during rioting in Bombay. Britain broke off diplomatic relations with Iran. In Belgium, two Muslim leaders who opposed Rushdie's death penalty were shot to death. Papua New Guinea, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Tanzania, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Venezuela, Bulgaria, Poland and Japan banned the book. The Ayatollah Khomeini died, and the Iranian government reaffirmed Rushdie's death penalty. Five bookstores in England were firebombed. The Japanese translator of the book was stabbed to death. The Italian translator was seriously wounded. The Norwegian publisher was shot and seriously wounded.(READ THE REST: Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses; By Jim Loy; JimLoi.com; © 2002)
Salman Rushdie’s memoir provides a fascinating insight into the life of a man who, haunted for a decade by the death sentence that hovered over his head, struggled to cobble together something resembling a quotidian existence. The event that was splashed across the pages of the national press is now recounted by the man who lived through it in bare, reflective, thought-provoking prose; Joseph Anton: A Memoir recounts the ten years Rushdie spent living under a fatwa.
The publication of Rushdie’s novel The Satanic Verses in 1988 enraged Muslims across the world, including the Ayatollah Khomeini, leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, who soon publicly demanded his execution. Throughout the decade of the fatwa, pronounced in 1988 and eventually lifted in 1998, Rushdie lived under an assumed identity, adopting the pseudonym Joseph Anton in a personal homage to the writers Joseph Conrad and Anton Chekhov. (READ THE REST: Any Other Name; By Rebecca Loxton; Oxonian Review; 2/17/13)
Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Ayaan Hirsi Ali, an outspoken defender of women's rights in Islamic societies, was born in Mogadishu, Somalia. She escaped an arranged marriage by immigrating to the Netherlands in 1992 and served as a member of the Dutch parliament from 2003 to 2006. In parliament, she worked on furthering the integration of non-Western immigrants into Dutch society and defending the rights of women in Dutch Muslim society. In 2004, together with director Theo van Gogh, she made Submission, a film about the oppression of women in conservative Islamic cultures. The airing of the film on Dutch television resulted in the assassination of Mr. van Gogh by an Islamic extremist. At AEI, Ms. Hirsi Ali researches the relationship between the West and Islam, women's rights in Islam, violence against women propagated by religious and cultural arguments, and Islam in Europe. (Ayaan Hirsi Ali – AEI Profile Page)
Ayaan Hirsi Ali captured the world’s attention with Infidel, her compelling coming-of-age memoir, which spent thirty-one weeks on the New York Times bestseller list.
Now, in Nomad, Hirsi Ali tells of coming to America to build a new life, an ocean away from the death threats made to her by European Islamists, the strife she witnessed, and the inner conflict she suffered. It is the story of her physical journey to freedom and, more crucially, her emotional journey to freedom – her transition from a tribal mind-set that restricts women’s every thought and action to a life as a free and equal citizen in an open society. Through stories of the challenges she has faced, she shows the difficulty of reconciling the contradictions of Islam with Western values.
In her books Hirsi Ali recounts the many turns her life took after she broke with her family, and how she struggled to throw off restrictive superstitions and misconceptions that initially hobbled her ability to assimilate into Western society. She speaks movingly of her reconciliation, on his deathbed, with her devout father, who had disowned her when she renounced Islam after 9/11, as well as with her mother and cousins in Somalia and in Europe. (From Islam to America; KeenTalks.com)
VIDEO Originally preceding this article – it is nearly an hour long but worth the view:
If you have made this far in the post here is the obligatory reminder that I was notified about the AQAP “Wanted” poster from the Infidel Task Force. And ITF sourced this info from the Weekly Standard.
JRH 3/2/13
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Al Qaeda Mag Publishes 'Wanted: Dead or Alive' List
"Yes We Can: A Bullet A Day Keeps The Infidel Away."
Mar 1, 2013 10:26 AM
The latest edition of the al Qaeda English-language magazine Inspire is out today. A digital copy of the magazine, provided by MEMRI (the Washington D.C. based Middle East Media Research Institute), shows a "Wanted: Dead or Alive" feature on page 10 of the new issue:
"Wanted: Dead or Alive for Crimes Against Islam," the page reads. The list includes: Molly Norris, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Flemming Rose, Morris Swadiq, Salman Rushdie, Girt Wilders [sic], Lars Vilks, Stephane Charbonnie, Carsten Luste, Terry Jones, and Kurt Westergaard.
No further reason is provided to explain why these folks were singled out for the hit list, though many are notable critics of radical Islam.
"Yes We Can," the image reads. "A Bullet A Day Keeps the Infidel Away."
"Defend Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him," the image reads.
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AQAP Inspire Mag – Kill these 10 Infidel ‘Wanted Poster’
John R. Houk
© March 2, 2013
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Al Qaeda Mag Publishes 'Wanted: Dead or Alive' List
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