Police to Swedish Artist: You Better Leave Now

This is what happens when you pander to a bloodthirsty mob.

But don't forget, they're the Religion of Peace.

Good thing they're celebrating Ramadan, otherwise he might be dead already.

Police tell threatened Swedish artist to leave home

A Swedish artist threatened with death over his drawing of Islam's Prophet Mohammad has been told by police he is no longer safe living at home.

Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, leader of the self-styled Islamic State in Iraq, offered up to $150,000 on Saturday for the murder of artist Lars Vilks for drawing the head of the Prophet on the body of a dog.

"I can't live here," Vilks told Reuters by phone. "SAPO (Sweden's security service) have judged that it (the threat) is very serious."

He was allowed to go home and collect some things but it may be a long time before he is able to return again, he said.

"We have had contact with him (Vilks) and together with him are taking the decisions that are necessary," a police spokesman said.

In an audiotape posted on the Internet, Baghdadi offered a lower bounty for the death of the editor of daily Nerikes Allehanda, which published the drawing last month in what it called a defense of free speech.

Top Swedish firms such as truck maker Volvo, mobile network builder Ericsson and retailer Ikea were also threatened unless an apology was forthcoming for the drawing.

The threats against Vilks and the newspaper mirror a crisis in Denmark last year.

Cartoons published in a Danish paper and reprinted around the world sparked riots in the Middle East, Asia and Africa in which at least 50 people died, and attacks against Danish embassies and a boycott of Danish goods.

That silence you hear is emanating from the leftist freedom of speech crowd.

Bounty on Swedish Cartoonist

My, these terrorists are so sensitive.

They haven't the slightest problem chopping off someone's head, but if you dare insult kiddie rapist Mohammed (propeller beanie upon him), then they come unglued.

More cartoons, please.

Al-Qaida: Bounty on Swedish cartoonist

CAIRO, Egypt - The leader of al-Qaida in Iraq offered money for the murder of a Swedish cartoonist and his editor who recently produced images deemed insulting to Islam, according to a statement carried by Islamist Web sites Saturday.

In a half hour audio file entitled "They plotted yet God too was plotting," Abu Omar al-Baghdadi also named the other insurgent groups in Iraq that al-Qaida was fighting and promised new attacks, particularly against the minority Yazidi sect.

"We are calling for the assassination of cartoonist Lars Vilks who dared insult our Prophet, peace be upon him, and we announce a reward during this generous month of Ramadan of $100,000 for the one who kills this criminal," the transcript on the Web site said.

The al-Qaida leader upped the reward for Vilks' death to $150,000 if he was "slaughtered like a lamb" and offered $50,000 for the killing of the editor of Nerikes Allehanda, the Swedish paper that printed Vilks' cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad with a dog's body on Aug. 19.

Vilks said from Sweden he believed the matter of his cartoons had been blown out of proportion.

"We have a real problem here," Vilks told The Associated Press by telephone. "We can only hope that Muslims in Europe and in the Western world choose to distance themselves from this and support the idea of freedom of expression."

Ulf Johansson, editor in chief of Nerikes Allehanda, said he took the bounty "more seriously" than other threats he had received. "This is more explicit. It's not every day somebody puts a price on your head."

Johansson said he had contacted the police and that they had already started work on the threat.

Aside from a few scattered protests and condemnations by Muslim countries, the reaction to the cartoon has been muted, in contrast to last year's fiery protests that erupted in several Muslim countries after a Danish newspaper published 12 cartoons of Muhammad that were reprinted in a range of Western media.

In an attempt to defuse the tensions caused by the cartoon in both Sweden and abroad, Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt last week invited 22 Sweden-based ambassadors from Muslim countries to talk about the sketch.

Reinfeldt expressed regret at the hurt it may have caused, but said that according to Swedish law it is not up to politicians to punish the free press.

Al-Baghdadi added in his message that if the "crusader state of Sweden" didn't apologize, his organization would also attack major companies.