Danish free-speech advocate Lars Hedegaard. |
Lars
Hedegaard, who heads a group that claims press freedom is under threat from
Islam, told The Associated Press he was shaken but not physically injured in
the attack at his Copenhagen home.
Hedegaard,
70, said the gunman rang the doorbell of his apartment building on the pretext
of delivering a package, and when Hedegaard opened the front door, the man
pulled out a gun and fired a shot that narrowly missed the writer's head.
"The
bullet flew past my right ear, after which I attacked him and punched him in
the face, which made him lose the gun," Hedegaard told AP. He said the
gunman then fled.
Hedegaard
heads the Free Press Society in Denmark and its international offshoot, the
International Free Press Society. He is also among the publishers of a weekly
anti-Islam newsletter.
In 2011,
he was convicted of hate speech and fined 5,000 kroner ($1,000) for making a
series of insulting and degrading statements about Muslims. Denmark's Prime
Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt condemned what she called a
"despicable" act.
Crime scene in Copenhagen, Denmark. |
"Failed
attack on my friend and Islam critic Lars Hedegaard in Denmark this morning. My
thoughts are with him. Terrible," Wilders tweeted. The Free Press Society
said it was "shaken and angry," but "relieved that the
perpetrator did not succeed."
Several
Scandinavian writers, artists and journalists have been exposed to threats and
violence from extremists since the 2005 publication of Danish newspaper
cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad triggered an uproar in Muslim countries.
Many
Muslims believe the prophet should not be depicted at all – even in a
flattering way – because it might encourage idolatry In 2010, a Somali man
living in Denmark used an ax to break into the home of one of the cartoonists,
who escaped unharmed by locking himself into a panic room.
Last
year, four Swedish residents were convicted of terrorism in Denmark for
plotting a shooting spree at the newspaper that first published the Muhammad
caricatures. In Sweden, Vilks has lived under police protection after a drawing
he made depicting Muhammad as a dog led to death threats from militant
Islamists.
The Danish Defender of Free Speech and his peoples’ Way of Life
(Lars Hedegaard's interview with Russian TV.)
(Lars Hedegaard giving a speech at NYC UN Plaza.)
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The Danish Defender of Free Speech and his peoples’ Way of Life
‘Girls in Muslim families are raped by
their uncles, their cousins, or their fathers,’ and ‘When a Muslim man rapes a
woman, it is in his right to do so,’ were among the comments Hedegaard made during an interview with the author of
snaphanen.dk.
The Eastern High Court later fined Lars
Hedegaard, the president of the Free Press Society, 5,000 kroner for making that so-called racially offensive comments in December 2009. That decision overturns a
decision in January by the Frederiksberg District Court, which stated that while
it found Hedegaard’s comments to be insulting, Hedegaard did not know that his
controversial comments would be made public.
Last week Hedegaard published a book
titled “Muhammeds Piger” (Mohammed’s Girls), in which he writes about issues
such as discrimination in Islam and that the belief in predestination.
“Everyone is subject to Allah’s will, but he treats them differently – without
stating any other criteria for the discrimination other than his own will,” the
book reads.
Hedegaard says, “my counsel has
instructed me that in cases brought under Article 266b, the only thing that
determines whether one is convicted or not is a matter of the perceived insult
whereas one is barred from proving the truth of the statement.” The article
deals with public statements whereby a group of people are “threatened,
insulted or degraded”. But as my lawyer has already noted, I have made no
public statement.
"When it comes to Article 266b,
there is no equality before the law. I am daily insulted and degraded by
something I read or hear and I am sure that most people have the same
experience.
For example, I am not only insulted and
degraded and threatened, but shaken to the core of my being when I hear a well
known Danish imam state that, of course, sharia law – Muslim law – will be
instituted as Denmark’s official legal regime when there are a sufficient
number of Muslims.
I strongly urge our country’s jurists to
get acquainted with the implications of the sharia, not only for Muslims but
equally for non-Muslims, who – if they are lucky – will be reduced to a life as
subhuman outlaws.
And if one cannot be bothered with
tedious dissertations, one may take a look at the legal order pertaining in
areas where the sharia holds sway either de jure or de facto. One will then encounter
a legal order the like of which we have not known since the passing of the Law
of Jutland in 1241 and probably not before.
But the imam wants this disorder
introduced in the country where I was born. And I must admit that I am
troubled. I am also troubled when said imam defends the killing of Muslims who
have left Islam and when he confirms that women and men guilty of fornication
must be pelt with stones until they are dead. He thinks that is God’s
commandment, which he cannot ignore."
Related posts at following links:
Islamic Republic of Belgian: Milestone of Eurabia?
Sweden Collapsing as Muslim Immigrants Wage War?
Sharia, Mullahs, and Muslims in Bangladesh