Not too long ago, I sincerely thought that Lars Vilks had a genuine interest in free speech. But since it became known that a group of Muslim radicals planned to kill this Swedish artist over a silly cartoon he made in 2007, Mr Vilks’s smug face has been in all media. It has now become obvious to me that he has no interest in free speech—he is only interested in self-promotion. That’s all right. If he wants to be the Islamophobes’ new best friend, that’s fine by me. He has every right to draw cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad or any other religious personality, but the threat to free speech is better illustrated by the many brave people who stand up against tyrannical dictators.
It is very important that free and liberal countries protect the freedom of people like Vilks, but that does not mean we have to approve of people in need of such protection. Lars Vilks bore me and I don’t like his approach to the controversy he so deliberately created.