Cartoonist 'not afraid' to visit us despite plot
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Friday March 12 2010
CONTROVERSIAL Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks isn't afraid to visit here despite an alleged plot to murder him.
Speaking exclusively to the Irish Independent last night, the 63-year-old artist said he would love to see Ireland despite the ongoing threat of being murdered by Islamic extremists. He also said Ireland was the last place he worried about harbouring a jihadist cell.
"I was really surprised. I had never thought about Ireland," he said after seven people were arrested in Co Waterford and Co Cork on Tuesday.
But the worldwide reporting of the arrests and the ensuing "media frenzy" in Sweden has only upped the ante, he added.
"My symbolic value as a target has increased," he said.
He made headlines around the world when his cartoons depicting the Muslim prophet Mohammad's head on a dog's body were published in a Swedish newspaper in August 2007, prompting condemnation by Muslims and al-Qa'ida death threats.
Axe
Mr Vilks said he was regularly briefed on the level of threat against him by Swedish police -- but he only learned of the alleged Irish plot against him when Swedish security agents informed him on Tuesday.
"The Irish police have been very efficient," he said. however, he admitted to taking precautions and being armed in the event of an attack.
"I really do have an axe," Mr Vilks added of photos taken of him wielding an axe at his home in southern Sweden. "The most important thing is, when there's a threat, you have to have a plan. I have a room in my house where I can hide and barricade myself in if I have to."
- Allison Bray
Irish Independent
