This can't be it!
After leaving Copenhagen early Saturday morning , traveling north to Elsinore, crossing the ferry to Sweden and continuing north along the coast of Scania, we arrive at a shack that would have caused embarrassment in the hillbilly country of West Virginia or along Tobacco Road.
Can this dilapidated edifice really be the home of the world famous Swedish artist Lars Vilks – the man whose drawing of a bewildered prophet in a traffic circle caused so much rage that Jihad-Jane wanted to come all the way from America to kill him and long-bearded mullas to offer $ 150,000 to anyone who would cut his throat?
But sure enough, we have come to the right place and are soon greeted by Vilks, who has observed our arrival from a distance.
Once the upholders of freedom and Western values used to live in places like Blenheim Castle. Modern-day Churchills have to make due with less, but their courage and achievements in standing up for free speech and all that is right are in no way inferior to those of the great men and women of the past.
A few days prior to our visit, the Free Press Society had put 1000 copies of the Mohound picture up for sale and our small delegation has brought them along for Vilks to number and sign.
Before settling down to the job, the artist tells us that he is in fine spirit. He regrets nothing and the world shall expect no retractions or apologies from him.
Vilks has sensed a change in Swedish society since the Prophet in the Traffic Circle first came out in 2007. To be sure he gets threatening phone calls but tends not to take them seriously. He is still persona non grata among the Swedish media and intellectual elites, who hate him for having offended tender Muslim sensibilities, but he receives a lot of support from ordinary Swedish citizens.
Finally, Swedes are beginning to understand the value of free speech. The ideology that the spread of Islamic fundamentalism is a societal enrichment is starting to crumble – or so he believes.
All attempts to silence him have come to naught as he is often invited to give lectures and participate in public debates. Right now he looks forward to delivering a speech three days later at the Philosophical Institution at the famous Uppsala University.
Videos of what happened at that meeting have now gone around the world. It must be plain to everybody with eyes to see exactly what sort of cultural enrichment the Allahu Akbar crowd represents.
And it is time for questions. How could the Swedish security police – SÄPO – have let dozens of obvious troublemakers into the hall? Whose side are the Swedish authorities on – the side of freedom or the side of Islamic totalitarianism?
It's as simple as that.
To the Free Press Society it is also very simple: We are happy to be able to offer Lars Vilks' picture for sale. We consider it our duty to stand up for free speech and will defend anyone who has become a marked person for having insisted on his constitutional right to speak his mind.
We urge every defender of freedom to show practical solidarity with Lars Vilks and get a copy of his iconic picture.
