Lars Vilks, Lonely Hero of the ‘Cartoon Wars’

10/22/2021

When historians come to write their histories of the early 21st century, one of the strangest parts to understand may be the chapters on the "cartoon wars" - a phenomenon that people of the time actually talked about with a straight face. Even with dread. These wars spilled out from a single Danish newspaper's publishing of cartoons of the prophet of Islam in 2005, after which embassies and people were attacked and mobs had their way. whatever our societies might like to profess - the sword, or rather the scimitar, is in fact mightier than the pen. Those people in the cultural and artistic worlds who have accepted that are flourishing. It is the people who would not accept it who are dying out.

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