Sweedish cartoonist Lars Vilks who was included in the Al Qaeda’s hit list for making controversial sketches of Prophet Muhammad in 2007 killed in a traffic accident.
Terrible news from Sweden. Lars Vilks was a man, and an artist, of enormous courage. He should never have been in this situation, and if other artists and others across Europe had not been such cowards then he never would have been. https://t.co/kjeE2jTqjB
— Douglas Murray (@DouglasKMurray) October 4, 2021
According to reports, the 75 year old artist Vilks was in a civilian police vehicle that crashed with a truck on its way. Two officers were also killed in the accident that took place in southern Sweden close to the town of Markaryd. Vilks was placed under police protection after he faced death threats over his drawings portraying Prophet Muhammad’s head on the body of a dog.
The police investigating the accident said, “This is a very tragic incident. It is now important to all of us that we do everything we can to investigate what happened and what caused the collision,” also adding, “Initially, there is nothing that points to anyone else being involved.”
A bounty of $100,000 was placed on Vilk’s head by Al-Qaida in 2007 for insulting the Prophet Muhammad.
In 2009, Jihad Jane or Colleen LaRose plotted to kill Lars Vilks. Later a suicide bomb attack was planned at Stockholm in 2010 by the Jihadists to punish Sweden for allowing Lars Vilks to publish his controversial drawings on the Prophet. According to reports, Lars Vilk was the main target of the Islamist terrorists for a long time and was continuously hounded by the Muslim protesters.
Lars Vilks was also included in the Al Qaeda hit list published in the Inspire 2013 edition, Al-Qaeda’s leading English-speaking magazine, with the heading “Wanted, dead or alive for crimes against Islam. The same list that included Charlie Hebdo editor late Stephane Charbonnier.
In 2015, the Copenhagen terrorist attacks happened in Denmark where Vilks was the star speaker at a free-speech event held at a cafe. A film director was killed in the attack and three police officers injured when an Islamist terrorist opened fire before going to a synagogue and killing a volunteer guard.
Unsurprisingly, the news of the Cartoonist’s death was celebrated by Islamist users on social media.
He finally died! #larsvilks pic.twitter.com/yqWEd8PYJQ
— king-cobra (@KinzCobra) October 3, 2021
#larsvilks great news pic.twitter.com/T5f4BSJkEe
— أيوب ayoub (@alm_ayoub) October 3, 2021
One user described it as ‘beautiful news’.
What a beautiful News .. https://t.co/xr8lqcTiQL
— Muhammed Saber (@MSMSPACE_) October 4, 2021
One of the users said, “Saved by the police of the world, can not run away from the police of God” while another user shared a video claiming it to be the video from the accident saying, “This is Lars pig burning video The one who insulted our master Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, with his dirty and ugly drawings.”
Diselamatkan polis dunia, tak boleh lari dari “polis Allah”. Nauzzubillahiminzalik https://t.co/2vlGoNAm00
— واننوراكمال™ (@wannurakmal) October 4, 2021
Allahu, finally balasannnnnnnnn https://t.co/VHvONWuEvw
هذا فيديو احتراق الخنزير لارس
— Neverminde (@Neverminde7) October 4, 2021
الذي تطاول برسوماته القذرة والقبيحة على سيدنا محمد علية الصلاة والسلام https://t.co/0dB6GtySl6 pic.twitter.com/SaY91vRg4S
Stefan Sinteus, head of Swedish southern regional investigation unit, said, “We want to completely exclude any external act targeting the car in which Lars Vilks found himself.” He added, “There is nothing to indicate that, but we want to be certain so we can rule it out.”
