Earlier in the week, Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks, one of a handful of artists whose drawings of Mohammed for a Danish newspaper touched of an international controversy, was attacked during a lecture he was giving at a Swedish university. Last night, arsonists tried to torch his house:
The home of a Swedish artist who once drew a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad as a dog has been hit by a suspected arson attack, police said Saturday.
Lars Vilks, who lives in Nyhamnslage in southern Sweden, was not at home during the attack late Friday night and no one was reported injured.
It was the latest in a week of attacks on the 53-year-old cartoonist, who was assaulted Tuesday by a man while he lectured at a university and saw his Web site apparently attacked by hacker on Wednesday.
Police were alerted just before noon Saturday, as people passing by the artist’s house noted that several windows had been smashed. When officers arrived, they discovered plastic bottles filled with gasoline and fire damage on the surface of the building. Attackers are also suspected of having tried setting the inside of house on fire, but the flames are thought to have fizzled out.
I guess that will teach Vilks to be more culturally sensitive.
