Rising Muslim militancy causing unease in Europe

By MICHAEL WEISSENSTEIN

Associated Press

LONDON - With the West locked in conflicts across the Muslim world, why would anyone throw fuel on the fire?

A small group of Europeans have been doing just that - provoking death plots and at least one murder by turning out art that derides the prophet Muhammad and the Quran in the name of Western values.

Behind the scenes is something bigger: a rising European unease with a rapidly growing Muslim minority, and the spreading sense that the continent has become a front in a clash of civilizations.

Swedish artist Lars Vilks says he was defending freedom of speech when he produced a crude black-and-white drawing of Muhammad with a dog's body in 2007. Authorities say that set him in the crosshairs of an assassination plot by extremists including Colleen LaRose, 46, a Muslim convert from Pennsylvania who dubbed herself "Jihad Jane."

"I'm actually not interested in offending the prophet. The point is actually to show that you can," Vilks said in a recent interview. "There is nothing so holy you can't offend it."

The Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten also said it was defending free speech in 2005 when it printed 12 cartoons of Muhammad, one in a bomb-shaped turban, setting off protests and the torching of Western embassies in several Muslim countries. And Dutch populist politician Geert Wilders said he was promoting European values by producing Fitna, a 15-minute film that lays images of 9/11 attacks alongside verses from the Quran. The film was shown in Britain's House of Lords this month.

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[Posted by Ida Micaily]