Protesters throw eggs at Swedish cartoonist

STOCKHOLM: A Swedish artist who angered Muslims by his blasphemous caricatures was pelted with eggs during a university lecture when he presented another such drawing, police and the artist said on Wednesday. Lars Vilks told The Associated Press that he was not harmed in Tuesday’s attack at Karlstad University in central Sweden and that he continued his lecture on the limits of free speech after police evicted the protesters from the building. Vilks, who has received numerous death threats from Islamists, said about a dozen people started yelling and hurling eggs at him when he presented his [blasphemous] sketch. “They were just waiting for the right moment to go to attack,” he told AP. The 65-year-old artist said he made the drawing in 2006, inspired by the debate that year over 12 [blasphemous] Danish newspaper cartoons, which sparked furious protests in Muslim countries. Karlstad police spokesman Per Strom said the attackers had been identified and the incident was being investigated, but no arrests have been made. Though there was a police presence at the lecture, the audience had not been searched because such measures must be announced in advance, Strom said. Vilks has faced a string of threats and violence of his sacrilegious drawings. In 2010, he was forced to abandon a lecture at another Swedish university when protesters rushed toward the stage and scuffled with police. Last year, a woman from Pennsylvania pleaded guilty in a plot to try to kill Vilks, and a year earlier two brothers were jailed for trying to burn down his house in southern Sweden. Vilks said he won’t be deterred from making public appearances. “I’ve experienced this so much now. It is what it is. You have to expect these things,” he said. “I have good protection and it works the way it should.” ap

Home | National