Category Archives: war on the arts

My Meeting with Lars Vilks

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By Fjordman

I have been fortunate enough to meet several of the great personalities involved in the struggle against Islamic totalitarianism over the past few years. In 2012, I met two of them for the first time in southern Sweden. One of them was the Dutch politician Geert Wilders, whom I met on October 27, 2012 during a visit to Malmö.

The other one was Lars Vilks, a Swedish art theorist and self-taught artist. His life was turned upside down after 2007, when he started drawing Islam’s founder Mohammad as a roundabout dog. This triggered several explicit death threats from Muslim groups. He has been living under police protection since then, especially following a statement from al-Qaida’s purported leader in Iraq offering a $100,000 dollar reward for his assassination.

Mohamed the traffic circus dog

Vilks warned in the spring of 2012 that “The attacks against me are working.” The strategy of physical intimidation employed by his opponents is unfortunately quite effective. He has seen his lecturing activities dry up over organizers’ fears of riots and of being labeled “racist.” At Karlstad University in Sweden, a lecture was interrupted by a loud group of aggressive young Muslims throwing eggs at him for showing one of his pictures inspired by the Muhammad caricature battle in neighboring Denmark.

 

Vilks lives in his home in a rural area of southern Sweden. In the summer of 2012 I joined a few other people who had met him before, and who had an appointment. When we arrived at his unassuming house, I discovered that a handful of Swedish police officers literally camp outside his home to provide around-the-clock protection against would-be assassins. They obviously wanted to see valid photo-IDs for each of us, preferably a passport.

 

I gave them one, and noticed some frantic whispers a couple of minutes later as they realized what a controversial person had just showed up unannounced. However, they quickly understood that I had done nothing criminal. I was controversial for being anti-Islamic, and was therefore very unlikely to harm Vilks.

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At last. Some artists finally recognize which side their bread is buttered on in the long term

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Yes leftists who hand out the vast vast majority of arts grants are ultra-politically-correct and will crush any artist who dares speak up against totalitarian Islam and/or communism. But in the long term artists had better recognize that if they want to do their art at all, grant or no, they had better look at who the real enemies of free-expresion is.

From ICLA:

More here:

Painting on wall of Modern Warfare 2 toilet upsets Muslims

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Eurogamer:

By Robert Purchese Published 8 October, 2012

Favela map pulled out of rotation by Activision.

Activision’s developers have aggravated the Muslim community by hanging a painting above a toilet in Modern Warfare 2.

The painting has holy teachings written around its frame. “Allah is beautiful and He loves beauty,” the text is reported to have read.

Apparently the presence of holy teachings in a place of number-ones and twos does not sit well with Islam. So Activision has pulled the Favela map out of rotation and will return it when edits have been made.

map

Wrote Activision to Kotaku:

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Student murder stokes fears of Egypt’s Islamists

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H/T Hermes

Times of Israel:

Bearded men approached unmarried couple sitting together in a park, demanding they separate, and fatally stabbed the young man

By July 5, 2012, 3:43 am

 

>Boys hold posters of Ahmed Hussein Eid, who was fatally stabbed by three bearded men, during his funeral procession in Suez, Egypt, on Wednesday, July 4, 2012. (photo credit: AP)
Boys hold posters of Ahmed Hussein Eid, who was fatally stabbed by three bearded men, during his funeral procession in Suez, Egypt, on Wednesday, July 4, 2012. (photo credit: AP)

CAIRO (AP) — Three bearded men approached a university student and his girlfriend during a romantic rendezvous in a park and ordered them to separate because they weren’t married, according to security officials. An argument broke out, ending with one of the men fatally stabbing the student.

The June 25 attack has alarmed Egyptians concerned that with an Islamist president in office, vigilante groups are feeling emboldened to enforce strict Islamic mores on the streets.

Islamists, including members of one-time violent groups, were empowered after last year’s ouster of Hosni Mubarak’s secular regime by a popular uprising. They formed political parties and won about 70 percent of parliament seats in elections held some six months ago, although a court dissolved the legislature.

Moderate Muslims along with liberal and women’s groups now worry that Mohammed Morsi’s presidency will eradicate what is left of Egypt’s secular traditions and change the social fabric of the mainly Muslim nation of 82 million people.

Some activists say Islamists already are flexing their muscles in areas outside Cairo and other main cities, taking advantage of the absence of civil society groups and tenuous security in the areas.

They cite reports of efforts to persuade drivers of communal taxis, mostly minibuses that can seat up to 16, to segregate women and men passengers. In some instances, women’s hairdressing salons were told to get rid of male employees or threatened with closure.

“If Islamists are to try and take over the streets and enforce their version of Islam, they will do it in rural areas, at least initially,” said Yara Sallam from Nazra, a women’s rights group.

The security officials said there was no concrete evidence linking the June 25 killing to radical Islamic groups in Egypt, but it still has stoked fears.

Islamist groups, including Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood and the ultraconservative Salafis, denied any link to the murders.

Rights groups say they have sent teams to investigate the Suez killing and establish whether Islamists were behind the attacks.

On the same day, two musicians, who were brothers, were murdered as they were traveling home after performing at a wedding in the Nile Delta province of Sharqiyah, officials said. Radical Muslims consider music “haram” or prohibited, as a distraction from religious duties.

Two ultraconservative Salafi Muslims were arrested, but officials said it was not clear if the killings were religiously motivated.

 

 

Tunisia: Salafis attack cities, 86 arrested

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ANSAMED:

Salafists protest in Tunis Salafists protest in Tunis

(ANSAmed) – TUNIS – Salafis have gone on the rampage in many Tunisian cities, with the destruction of property and the setting on fire of police stations, party and union headquarters and even a lorry transporting alcoholic beverages. The rioting started over the night in Tunis and then spread to many other cities in the country (such as Sousse and Jendouba), which saw extremely violent episodes fostered by hundreds of Salafis. In some situations the police were forced to shoot into the air in the attempt to quell the rioting, such as in the Ettahir municipality, where in this way they managed to prevent a group of policemen from being attacked by hundreds of Salafis armed with clubs and stones. The extremists’ protest began in the northern outskirts of the capital and especially in Marsa, where the gallery of art is located which – through its exhibition of works held to be immoral by Salafis – sparked their reaction. From Marsa the rioting spread to the southern suburbs to the edges of Carthage, where the presidential palace is located, under military guard the entire night.

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Report: Six Pakistanis sentenced to death for dancing, singing at wedding

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There is an old ‘plug-and-play’ joke about an orthodox Christian/Jew/Pentecostal etc. being asked

“Why do they make love lying down”

to which the answer is:

“because if we do it standing up, it might lead to dancing”

In Islam it is less of a joke.

Daily Caller:

A Pakistani man who fled his village due to fighting between security forces and militants in Pakistan’s tribal area of Bajur, enjoys jumping on a trampoline at a makeshift entertainment park set up in a slum area on the outskirts of Islamabad, Pakistan, Friday, May 11, 2012. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)

Six people in a small village in northeastern Pakistan have been sentenced to death after a cell phone video of them singing and dancing together surfaced, Agence France-Presse reports.

The six revelers, two men and four women, were recorded together at a wedding, in severe violation of tribal customs that forbid the commingling of sexes at weddings. The wedding took place in the Gada village of the Kohistan district, some 100 miles north of Islamabad.

After the death sentences were handed down, “it was decided that the men will be killed first, but they ran away so the women are safe for the moment,” according to Kohistan district police officer Abdul Majeed Afridi.

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Iranian death threat sends rapper underground

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DW.De
Iranian rapper and songwriter Shahin Najafi and his band

Religion

A Germany-based rapper has cancelled his concerts and turned to the police for protection. An Iranian ayatollah proclaimed one of Shahin Najafi’s songs blasphemy, opening the door for him to be killed.

Najafi said on Friday he had cancelled concerts in Europe, but that he wanted to continue working despite the threat to his life.

“I am young, and I am an artist, and I have to perform,” the 31-year old told German public broadcaster Deutschlandfunk, saying that he couldn’t accept the idea of living underground for a long amount of time.

Najafi’s manager said the Iranian-born musician was receiving police protection.

Iranian Grand Ayatollah Lotfollah Safi Golpaygani had accused Najafi of insulting a Shiite Islam prophet in his song “Imam Naghi,” Iranian news agency Fars reported on Wednesday. The cleric’s comments can be interpreted as a call to all Muslims to kill the 31-year-old musician.

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Pakistan comedian who poked fun at Taliban militants abducted

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I guess in Pakistan they don’t bother with ‘Human Rights Commissions’ (Pardy v. Earle and Ismail) for politically incorrect comedians…

IBN LIVE:

Islamabad: A comedian who poked fun at the Taliban’s practice of apprehending thieves and meting out summary punishment to them was kidnapped from Peshawar in northwest Pakistan while he was entertaining guests at a wedding, according to a media report today.

Nisar Khan had recently written a comedic song about thieves being caught and punished by the militants with lyrics like: “Shave my head, paint my face black; Mount me on a donkey and make fun of me.”

Khan was entertaining guests at a wedding at Matani, a suburb of Peshawar, on Monday when around 20 militants entered the ‘hujra’ or guesthouse where he was performing and abducted him, The Express Tribune reported.

Pakistan comedian who poked fun at Taliban militants abducted

The militants told the gathering that they “needed an entertainer urgently”. The incident occurred near a police check point. “The militants took Nisar away, saying they too needed an entertainer on an urgent basis,” a person who was present at the hujra told the daily.

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Danish court puts four men on trial on terror charges

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DW.De:

The offices of the Jullands-Posten in Copenhagen

Justice

Danish court puts four men on trial on terror charges

Four men have been put on trial in Copenhagen for allegedly trying to attack the offices of a newspaper that published cartoons of the Prophet Muhammed. The 2005 cartoons sparked outrage in the Muslim world.

Four men have pleaded not guilty of charges of plotting an attack on a Danish newspaper that published controversial caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad have gone on trial in Denmark.

If convicted, the three Swedish citizens and one Tunisian resident of Sweden could face a maximum of 16 years in prison.

All four men were arrested in December of 2010. At the time of their arrest, three of the suspects were allegedly on their way to the offices of the Jyllands-Posten newspaper in downtown Copenhagen, where police said they planned to “kill as many people as possible.”

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Stoned to death for being an emo: NINETY Iraqi students killed for having ‘strange hair and tight clothes’

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Daily Mail:

  • Number of deaths could be even higher
  • Cleric calls the stonings ‘an act of terrorism’
  • Ministry of Interior ‘complicit’ in the killings

By Paul Milligan

PUBLISHED: 10:55 GMT, 10 March 2012 | UPDATED: 16:57 GMT, 10 March 2012

More than 90 Iraqi students have been stoned to death for their Emo haircuts by religious extremists in Baghdad in the past month after Iraq’s  interior ministry dubbed it ‘devil worshipping’.

Iraq’s Moral Police released a statement on the interior ministry’s website condemning the ’emo phenomenon’ among Iraqi youth, declaring its intent to ‘eliminate’ the trend.

The move is part of a wider clampdown on young people taking on what government officials call ‘Western appearances’ in Iraq.

Iraqi activists said this unnamed teenager was brutally killed by religious police for having an 'emo' hairstyleIraqi activists said this unnamed teenager was brutally killed by religious police for having an ’emo’ hairstyle

‘The Emo phenomenon or devil worshipping is being followed by the Moral Police who have the approval to eliminate [the phenomenon] as soon as possible since it’s detrimentally affecting the society and becoming a danger,’ the statement read.

‘They wear strange, tight clothes that have pictures on them such as skulls and use stationary that are shaped as skulls. They also wear rings on their noses and tongues, and do other strange activities,’.

Since the statement was published religious extremists have been harassing and killing teenagers with ‘strange’ or ’emo’ appearances.

A group of armed men dressed in civilian clothing led dozens of teenagers to secluded areas a few days ago, stoned them to death, and then disposed their bodies in garbage dumpsters across the capital, according to activists, activists told the Cairo-based al-Akhbar website.

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More…

Egyptian comic sentenced to three months jail for insulting Islam

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The artistic community of Egypt must be so relieved at getting rid of the tyrant and dictator Mubarak and getting the Islamic-democratic government in it’s place.

One thing though..

No one will be able to mock, ridicule or criticize the new government in pretty much any-way without being a blaspheme, which for now is punishable by jail, but pretty soon by death I would estimate.

I hope the Western and especially Canadian Art community is paying close attention. You know, the ones who think Stephen Harper is a tyrant and that Canada needs it’s own Arab spring?

This story from Reuters by way of Weasel Zippers

This won’t make these punks’ day: Rock fans have heads shaved and get ‘cleansed’ in river in Islamic law crackdown

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And so it continues…

The Daily Mail:

  • 65 youths have been sent to a police school in Indonesia’s Aceh province to receive mental and spiritual guidance for ten days
  • Only then are they are allowed to return home

By Graham Smith

Last updated at 10:06 PM on 14th December 2011

Dozens of young punk rock fans have had their heads shaved and body piercings confiscated after police in Indonesia said they were a threat to Islamic values.

The 59 male and six female music lovers were also stripped of dog-collar necklaces and chains and then thrown in pools of water for ‘spiritual’ cleansing, police chief Iskandar Hasan said.

After replacing their ‘disgusting’ clothes, he handed each a toothbrush and barked ‘use it’.

The 65 youths were then sent to a police school to receive mental and spiritual guidance for ten days. Only then are they are allowed to return home.

Indonesian police arrested 65 punk rock fans at a concert in Banda Aceh on Saturday. They then shaved off the youths' hair and removed their body piercings which they say threaten Islamic valuesIndonesian police arrested 65 punk rock fans at a concert in Banda Aceh on Saturday. They then shaved off the youths’ hair and removed their body piercings which they say threaten Islamic values

 

Boot camp: Police also replaced the music fans' 'disgusting' clothes and each was handed a toothbrushBoot camp: Police also replaced the music fans’ ‘disgusting’ clothes and each was handed a toothbrush

It was the latest effort by authorities to promote strict moral values in Aceh, the only province in the secular but predominantly Muslim nation of 240million people to have imposed Islamic laws.

Adultery is punishable by stoning to death; homosexuals have been thrown in jail or lashed in public with canes; women are told that wearing headscarves is a must, but tight trousers are banned.

 

Punk rockers have complained for months about harassment, but Saturday’s round-up was by far the most dramatic treatment they have yet been subjected to.

Baton-wielding police broke up the concert, scattering young music lovers. Continue Reading →