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	<title>FrontPage Magazine &#187; Craig Snider</title>
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		<title>Lars Vilks, Artist, Hero of the Free World</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/craig-snider/lars-vilks-artist-hero-of-the-free-world/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=lars-vilks-artist-hero-of-the-free-world</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/craig-snider/lars-vilks-artist-hero-of-the-free-world/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 06 Oct 2010 04:25:26 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Craig Snider]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[A pencil drawing of Mohammed earns a Swedish artist a $100,000 death bounty. Who will defend him?]]></description>
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<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/vilks.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-73414" title="vilks" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/vilks.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="500" /></a></p>
<p>Here  I sit in the comfort of my home, surrounded by picture windows, taking  time to write my thoughts about the last few days with Lars Vilks,  Swedish artist&#8212;a man who has no such luxury.  Vilks has been condemned for a pencil drawing he drew of Mohammed depicted as a dog in traffic.  The  work was pulled from a gallery exhibition in a small Swedish town for  fear of Muslim reprisals. The incident and illustration was then  published in the local newspapers. Now, an enterprising Jihadi can earn  $100,000 for executing Vilks, and get $50,000 extra if a knife is used  to do the job.</p>
<p>Two  days before his arrival, I learned just how seriously the U.S. law  enforcement community assessed the threat to Vilks when I received an  urgent call from the hotel where the appearance was to take place.  The  manager told me there were twenty-five officers representing ten  agencies, including FBI, Homeland Security and the Philadelphia Police  Department’s SWAT team&#8212; there to discuss how they were going to keep  Vilks alive during his 40-hour stay.  On a threat profile scale of one to ten, with ten being the highest threat, Vilks was a ten.</p>
<p>As  Director of the Philadelphia offices of the David Horowitz Freedom  Center, I invited Vilks to Philadelphia as part of a North American Tour  to commemorate the fifth anniversary of another illustration, by Kurt  Westegaard.  The Danish Cartoon controversy&#8211;sparked by a  political cartoon depiction of Mohammed with a ticking time bomb in his  Turban—had lead to deaths and executions around the world.  When  the FBI showed up at my office, and Philly’s top commander of homeland  security called my cell phone, I realized that I had no choice but to pull the plug on the public event.  Instead I arranged a series of press interviews at an undisclosed location.  Were  it not for the interest of the press and their wide coverage, silencing  Vilks would have marked a win for the Jihad, and another loss for  freedom of speech and artistic expression.</p>
<p>Lars  Vilks is among a small cadre of everyday people around the world living  in unusual times and drawn to acts of social disobedience.  Men  like Bjorn Larsen in Canada, Lars Hedegaard in Denmark, co-founders of  the International Free Press Society defend Vilks and his Danish  compatriot, Kurt Westegaard and their right to freedom of expression in a  free society.  During my two days with Vilks, and  Hedegaard who made the trip as well, I learned a great deal about the  meaning of courage and overcame any doubts I had about becoming publicly  identified with their cause.</p>
<p>Although  Vilks himself doesn’t show any outward signs of worry about the price  on his head, the Philadelphia’s Joint Terrorism Task Force didn’t  overlook any detail or spare any expense to assure his safety.  Working  with airport police and the TSA, a convoy of FBI, SWAT and Homeland  Security officers escorted me to intercept Vilks and Hedegaard as they  were disembarking the international flight.  They expedited  our guests through US Customs to a private area and got us to an  unmarked SUV driven by two large SWAT team agents, wearing bullet proof  vests under dark suits.  Each was armed and in radio contact with other agents along our planned route.</p>
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