Swedish papers publish Mohammed cartoon

Leading Swedish newspapers on Wednesday published a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed with the body of a dog after the arrest on Tuesday by Irish police of seven Muslims suspected of plotting to murder the cartoonist.

Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks Reuters

Four men and three women were arrested in the Irish towns of Cork and Waterford on Tuesday in an operation coordinated with US and European security agencies.

Police say they were plotting to assassinate Lars Vilks, who has a 74,000-euro bounty on his head from an Al-Qaeda-linked group after the cartoon was published in a regional daily, Nerikes Allehanda in 2007 alongside an editorial on freedom of expression.

The Dagens Nuheter and Expressen papers published the cartoon on Wednesday in a sign of solidarity with Vilks and called on the Swedish state to provide him with “all the protection he needs”.

Vilks said on Tuesday that he is not worried by the threats to his life.

“I’m not shaking with fear, exactly, he told the IT news agency.