Craven CNN Moment of the Day

Tue, Oct 16, 2007 at 7:48:07 am PDT

In their report on Lars Vilks, the Swedish artist whose drawing of Mohammed as a dog has drawn death threats from the Religion of Peace™, CNN says Vilks should have known better.

Vilks, who has been a controversial artist for more than three decades in Sweden, says his drawing was a calculated move, and he wanted it to elicit a reaction. “That’s a way of expressing things. If you don’t like it, don’t look at it. And if you look at it, don’t take it too seriously. No harm done, really,” he says.

When it’s suggested that might prove an arrogant — if not insulting — way to engage Muslims, he is unrelenting, even defiant. “No one actually loves the truth, but someone has to say it,” he says.

Vilks, a self-described atheist, points out he’s an equal opportunity offender who in the past sketched a depiction of Jesus as a pedophile. [No death threats for that, of course. – ed.]

Still one could argue Vilks should have known better because of what happened in Denmark in 2005, when a cartoonist’s depictions of the prophet sparked violent protests in the Muslim world and prompted death threats against that cartoonist’s life.