Axe Wielding "Religion of Peace" Follower in the News

Danish cartoonist hid in 'panic room' during attack

I realize that the title for this post may seem a bit provokative or even sarcastic, but perhaps ironic makes more sense in light of the recent attempts by some of the less fanatical Muslims in our midst to portray Islam as a "religion of peace." I confess that I'm guilty of sensationalism at times to bolster readership, but I'm only a humble "infidel." To those who may be offended, please don't come after me with an axe for anything said on this blog. Come to think of it, why would a religious fanatic read a blog called "Free Thinkers' Playground" anyway?



(CNN) -- Danish political cartoonist Kurt Westergaard hid in a "panic room" inside his home as a man wielding an ax and knife cracked the glass in the home's front door, Danish police said Saturday.

Police said a home alarm alerted them to the scene in Aarhus at 10 p.m. Friday, and they were attacked by the suspect when they responded. Police shot the suspect.
Westergaard took his 5-year-old granddaughter into the "panic room" when he realized what was happening, Chief Superintendent Ole Madsen said.

Westergaard, who has been threatened for drawing cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, is ordinarily accompanied by bodyguards when he leaves his home, but nobody was on guard at the house Friday, the Security and Intelligence Service told CNN.

Police said Westergaard was "being taken care of" after the break-in, but wouldn't reveal his new location. The suspect, meanwhile, appeared in court Saturday, charged with attempted assassination, the Danish Intelligence and Security Service said.

The suspect was shot in the right leg and left hand and hospitalized after the incident, police said. Video showed him appearing in court Saturday strapped onto a stretcher.
Authorities did not identify the suspect because the judge decided it would be illegal to disclose his name, said Madsen, with the East Jutland Police. Authorities said he was a 28-year-old Somali who has legal residency in Denmark and lives in Sjaelland, near Copenhagen.

The suspect was charged with the attempted assassination of Westergaard and a police officer on duty, the intelligence service said. The judge ordered the suspect held for four weeks while the investigation proceeds. Madsen said the man is the only suspect in the case, and he would not say whether police were investigating anyone else.

Police had no indication that an attack was being planned on Westergaard, Madsen said, though the intelligence service said the suspect had been under surveillance because of his terrorist links. Danish intelligence officials said the suspect is connected to al-Shabaab, al Qaeda's ally in east Africa.

Al-Shabaab, the militant organization with alleged ties to the suspect, is waging a bloody battle against Somalia's transitional government and is currently on a U.S. government list of terrorist organizations.

At a news conference in the Somali capital of Mogadishu, al-Shabaab spokesman Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage said, "We are very happy with the Somali national who attacked the house of the Danish cartoonist who previously insulted our prophet Mohammed. This is an honor for the Somali people. We are telling that we are glad that anyone who insults Islam should be attacked wherever they are."

The incident "once again confirms the terrorist threat that is directed against Denmark and against cartoonist Kurt Westergaard, in particular," said Jakob Scharf, spokesman for the Danish Security and Intelligence Service.

Westergaard's caricature of Muhammad -- showing the prophet wearing a bomb as a turban with a lit fuse -- sparked an uproar among Muslims in early 2006 after newspapers reprinted the images months later as a matter of free speech. The cartoon was first published by the Danish newspaper Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten in September 2005.

At the time, Westergaard said he wanted his cartoon to say that some people exploited the prophet to legitimize terrorism. However, many in the Muslim world interpreted the drawing as depicting their prophet as a terrorist.

Over the years, Danish authorities have arrested other suspects who allegedly plotted against Westergaard's life. After three such arrests in February 2008, Westergaard issued a statement, saying, "Of course I fear for my life after the Danish Security and Intelligence Service informed me of the concrete plans of certain people to kill me. However, I have turned fear into anger and indignation. It has made me angry that a perfectly normal everyday activity which I used to do by the thousand was abused to set off such madness."
Scharf said authorities have taken measures to ensure Westergaard's safety, and that the protection has "proven effective."
CNN's Per Nyberg contributed to this report.

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Pat Condell on Appeasing Islam

One European who has very strong opinions on such matters as censorship and blasphemy laws is British comedian Pat Condell and he is not shy about shooting straight from the lip!

Ring out the old, Ring in the new, Ring out the false, Ring in the True!!

"Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true."
-- Alfred Lord Tennyson

These lines from Tennyson have apparently been lost on the government of Ireland. Today rings in the imposition of a new "blasphemy" law, making it a criminal offense to utter or publish "matter that is grossly abusive or insulting in relation to matters held sacred by any religion, thereby intentionally causing outrage among a substantial number of adherents of that religion..." This is obviously an attempt to stave off the sort of riotous behavior that took place in Denmark over the publishing of a cartoon depicting the prophet Mohammed that was considered "blasphemous" by Muslims and sparked another spate of "bad craziness" in the UK a while back. This law is yet another instance of selling out the principle of free speech in an attempt to gain some security from those who oppose freedom to do anything but submit to rule by a mob of zealots who want nothing less than a return to the llth century. This is hardly the way to "ring in the new," much less a way to "ring out the false, ring in the true."

Michael Nugent of the group, Atheist Ireland, has initiated a campaign to repeal this law and has published a list of 25 Blasphemous Quotes which have previously been published by or uttered by or attributed to such people as Jesus Christ, Muhammad, Mark Twain, Randy Newman, Monty Python, Rev Ian Paisley, Conor Cruise O’Brien, Frank Zappa, Salman Rushdie, George Carlin, Richard Dawkins, Pope Benedict XVI, Christopher Hitchens, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor and Dermot Ahern among others.
(read the list)