Sunday on CNN, artist Lars Vilks discussed the Copenhagen terror attack that killed two and injured three others. In a free speech debate held by the cartoonist who has been under death threats since his 2007 caricatures of Muhammad, he said the art world is one sided.
Vilks said, “In every art exhibition, you’ll see that you have a political statement against Bush and against Israel, but you never have any sort questioning about Islam. Which actually then were more interesting subject after the caricatures. So I wanted to add something to that discussion. Why are you so one sided again, in the art world.”
When Vilks was asked if he feels he “contributed to this sentiment that has inspired some people to resort to violence to express their anger,” he replied, “Well, when you pose a question on the political responsibility, I mean, the religious symbols they are carrying, at least in this case, they’re carrying political decisions, certain dogmas, so if you question the basic symbols of this, it’s part of a political conversation. If you have people that want to go out and have guns and start murdering people, the thing is, you should put these people in prison. Because you cannot accept people murdering and trying in that way to stop the discussion you have concerning our questions about what you do with the freedom of speech in a democracy.”
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