Assassination plot
In 2009, a failed plot to kill Vilks was hatched. Three U.S. citizens, Colleen LaRose (known as "Jihad Jane"),Mohammad Hassas Khalid and Jamie Paulin Ramirez, participated in the
plot. On 9 March 2010, LaRose's federal indictment was unsealed charging
her with trying to recruit Muslims to murder Vilks.[13][14]
On the same day, seven people were arrested in the Republic of
Ireland over an alleged plot to assassinate Vilks. Police officers close
to the investigation said those arrested were foreign-born Irish
residents, mostly from Yemen and Morocco and had refugee status.[15][16] Of the seven, three men and two women were arrested in Waterford and Tramore, and another man and woman at Ballincollig, near Cork.[15] Garda Síochána (the Irish police force), which conducted the arrests with support from the National Support Services and the counter-terrorist Special Detective Unit, said the suspects ranged in age from mid 20s to late 40s.[17]
The Irish police added that throughout the investigation they had been
"working closely with law enforcement agencies in the United States and
in a number of European countries".[17]
Violent attacks
On 11 May 2010, Muslim protesters assaulted Vilks while he was giving a lecture about free speech at Uppsala University.The attacks started when a film about Islam and homosexuality (the
video depicts images of topless men, including one brief image of two
fully clothed men kissing, all interspersed with Islamic imagery) was
shown and some students began to demand that the film be stopped,
claiming it to be gay porn. The film in question was Iranian artist Sooreh Hera's Allah ho Gaybar.
Vilks' eyeglasses were broken but he did not suffer any serious
injuries, and was escorted to safety by security, while a few of the
protesters were detained by police. Despite previous death threats, this
was the first act of violence against Vilks.[citation needed]
A few days later, on 15 May 2010, Vilks' house in southern Sweden was attacked by arsonists.[18] They smashed the windows and threw in bottles of gasoline.[18] There was a small fire, but the house was not burned to the ground. Vilks was not at home at the time of the attack.[18] Two Kosovar-Swedish brothers were arrested, and July 15 they were sentenced to two and three years, respectively, of imprisonment.[19]
On 24 November 2010, a video produced by the Somali
Islamic organization Al-Shaabab was sent out. In the video, a Swedish
speaking voice appeals to "all the Somali brothers and sisters" in
Sweden, to leave that country and come to Somalia to fight for
Al-Shabaab. He announces a death threat against Vilks. On 12 December
2010, a suicide bomber in Stockholm
said in a message to media and the Swedish Security Police that "Now
will your children, daughters and sisters die the same way our brothers
and sisters die. Our actions will speak for themselves. As long as you
don't end your war against Islam and degradation against the prophet and
your foolish support for the pig Vilks."[citation needed]
On 10 September 2011, three men were arrested on suspicion of preparing to commit terrorist crimes in Gothenburg.
Two days after the arrest, the crime classification was changed to
conspiring to murder. It was revealed a few days later that Vilks was
the intended target of the three men.[20][21] Wikipedia
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