Lars Vilks: Muhammad cartoonist dies in car crash while under police protection - reports
A Swedish artist who drew the Prophet Muhammad with a dog's body has
died in a traffic accident, according to Swedish media reports.
Lars Vilks, 75, had been placed under police protection following multiple death threats - including from al Qaeda - over his 2007 cartoon.
According to Swedish news agency TT, police confirmed that Vilks was
traveling in the car with two police protection officers on Sunday when
it was involved in an accident with a truck.
All three have reportedly died and the truck driver was injured.
Police
have not named Vilks as one of the casualties, but the artist's partner
confirmed his death to the Dagens Nyheter newspaper.
The cause of the accident is now under investigation.
The death
threats against Vilks came following his cartoon, with dogs being
considered unclean by conservative Muslims, and Islamic law generally
opposing any depiction of the prophet, even favourable, for fear it
could lead to idolatry.
Al Qaeda had put a $100,000 (£73,692) bounty on his head in response to the drawing.
In 2015, he attended a free speech event at a café in Copenhagen. It was targeted by an Islamist gunman
who opened fire, killing a film director and wounding three police
officers. The gunman then went to a synagogue and killed a volunteer
guard.
Vilks later said he believed he was the intended target of the shooting.
In
2010, two men tried to burn down his house in southern Sweden. Last
year, a woman from Pennsylvania pleaded guilty in a plot to try to kill
him.
