Notice the woman in the crowd wearing a keffiyeh:
A full transcript is below the jump.
- - - - - - - - -
| [00:00:00.00] | The artist Lars Vilks was assaulted at 5.30 pm on Tuesday when he was lecturing at Uppsala University. | |
| [00:00:09.00] | The lecture was filmed and the camera caught the assault. | |
| [00:00:13.00] | [Noise — “Allahu akhbar” etc.] | |
| [00:00:29.00] | The lecture had only just begun when a man rose and jumped at Vilks. | |
| [00:00:33.00] | Vilks said he was hit in the chest [a dansk kalle — a head-butt] and punched in the face, so that his glasses broke. | |
| [00:00:42.00] | Great confusion arose after the attack, and a policeman was even hurt during the tumult. | |
| [00:00:50.00] | [More “Allahu akhbar”; policeman: “get back, get back”] | |
| [00:01:13.00] | After the assault Vilks was taken to safety. | |
| [00:01:16.00] | Two persons were taken into custody immediately afterwards. | |
| [00:01:22.00] | Vilks’ lecture was about his own work and art and freedom of expression. | |
| [00:01:26.00] | It was when Vilks showed a film with sexual content that the air was filled with hatred. | |
| [00:01:31.00] | Vilks previously received several threats on his life after depicting the Prophet as a roundabout dog. |
For previous posts on Lars Vilks and the Roundabout Dogs, see the Modoggie Archives.
5 comments:
Story was picked up by AP 2010-05-12 00:15
the left is slowly but surely waking up. and up. and up. it will be too late, of corse, but this will make it even more interestign
Lars Vilks' blog was hacked by islamists.
Brave as he is, Vilks hopes to get another chance to deliver a lecture on free speech that was interrupted by violent protests . . . but will he be offered such an opportunity?
via USAToday: Muhammad cartoonist defiant after attack
STOCKHOLM (AP) — A Swedish artist whose drawing of the Prophet Muhammad offended Muslims said Wednesday he hopes to get another chance to deliver a lecture on free speech that was interrupted by violent protests.
But officials at Uppsala University said they doubted they would invite Lars Vilks again after police used pepper spray and batons to help him escape a furious crowd Tuesday.
"It's nothing that we're discussing right now, but it's not very likely given how it turned out here," university spokeswoman Anneli Vaara said.
While Vilks escaped the incident with broken glasses and a bit of a shock, he said it raised concerns about the freedom of expression at Sweden's oldest and most prestigious institute of higher learning.
"What you get is a mob deciding what can be discussed at the university," Vilks told The Associated Press, adding he was ready to repeat the lecture if re-invited.
"I'm ready to go up again," he said. "This must be carried through. You cannot allow it to be stopped."
The 53-year-old artist has faced numerous threats over his 2007 sketch of Muhammad with a dog's body. Earlier this year U.S. investigators said he was the target of an alleged murder plot involving Colleen LaRose, an American woman who dubbed herself "Jihad Jane," and who now faces life in prison. She has pleaded not guilty.
Vilks' website appeared to have been exposed to a hacker attack on Wednesday. Instead of his regular blog there was a message saying the site had been hacked and with links to information about the Prophet Muhammad.
Witnesses said the violence Tuesday broke out a few minutes into Vilks' lecture about the limits of artistic freedom, when he showed a film by an Iranian artist about Islam and homo- sexuality. A young man leaped from his front-row seat and tried to attack Vilks, police and the artist said. Vilks initially believed he was head-butted by the man, but said he later understood he had collided with plainclothes police officers who intercepted the attacker and then briskly evacuated Vilks from the room.
"This was the first time I've experienced a physical assault," Vilks said. "It was a bit of a shock."
A video of the incident showed agitated police officers clashing with protesters at the front of the lecture hall. A female police officer used pepper spray to subdue a young man, and another youngster was wrestled to the ground. Some protesters were shouting "God is great" in Arabic.
Uppsala police spokesman Jonas Eronen said two officers sustained minor injuries.
The attacker was detained on suspicion of attempted assault but was later released, he said. Two others a man and a woman were also released after questioning and could face charges of using violence against police. All suspects were in their late teens, Eronen said.
Vaara, the university spokeswoman, said the lecture had been open to the public and the suspects were not believed to be students, though she added she wasn't sure about that.
The incident was condemned by Swedish newspaper editorials calling it an attack on the freedom of speech, and in more moderate terms by the Scandinavian country's leading politician.
"It shows that there are tensions in this discussion, which I've had to follow for years," Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt told reporters in Stockholm. "I take it very seriously. There is a risk that tensions form between individuals and the Swedish society, which is something we don't want."
There is a much longer video available at Youtube, from "Galne Gunnar TV":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2IHnWY-i6Y
This picked up from the Norwegian site document.no, in the following thread:
http://www.document.no/2010/05/uppsala_-_senter_for_hoyreekst.html
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