“Swedish artist Lars Vilks has died. Vilks was most famous for his depictions of the prophet Muhammad, a work of art & exercise in freedom of speech which forced him to live in a secret location with 24/7 security due to constant threats from Islamist extremists,” notes Annika Rothstein. He died October 3 in a car crash in southern Sweden, near the town of Markaryd. He was 75.
Vilks triggered global controversy in 2007 with drawings depicting Mohammed, the founder of Islam, with the body of a dog. Vilks had been living under police protection since the Mohammed/dog drawings were published. He was traveling in a police vehicle that collided with a truck. Two cops also died in the crash that killed Vilks.
Since the publication of the Mohammed/dog cartoons, Vilks had been living under round-the-clock police guard following death threats against him. A bounty was put on his head and his home was fire-bombed. In 2015, a man was killed in Copenhagen at a meeting that marked the 25th anniversary of an Iranian death decree issued by the Ayatollah Khomeini against British writer Salman Rushdie. Vilks attended that meeting, and was almost certainly the intended target. Vilks said his cartoons were intended to challenge political correctness in the art world, not to enrage Muslims.
