The latest edition of the al Qaeda English-language magazine Inspire is out today. A digital copy of the magazine, provided by MEMRI shows a “Wanted: Dead or Alive” feature on page 10 of the new issue:
Weekly Standard (h/t Kamiaru) “Wanted: Dead or Alive for Crimes Against Islam,” the page reads. The list includes: Molly Norris, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Flemming Rose, Morris Swadiq, Salman Rushdie, Girt Wilders [sic], Lars Vilks, Stephane Charbonnie, Carsten Luste, Terry Jones, and Kurt Westergaard. No further reason is provided to explain why these folks were singled out for the hit list, though many are notable critics of radical Islam.
“Yes We Can,” the image reads. “A Bullet A Day Keeps the Infidel Away.”
“Defend Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him,” the image reads.
Those targeted by al-Qaeda include:
- Carsten Juste, lead editor of Jyllands-Posten during the cartoons controversy.
- Terry Jones, the Florida pastor who declared “Islam is of the Devil”, declared September 11 to be “International Burn-A-Koran Day” and became an unlikelysymbol of free speech when leaders of both the Democratic and Republican parties called for him to be held liable for al-Qaeda attacks. Jones has been sentenced to death by an Egyptian court after the Arab Spring.
- Kurt Westergaard, who drew the most simple and propagandistic of the Jyllands-Posten cartoons and has survived one assassination attempt, with a second attemptstopped in the planning stages.
- Geert Wilders, leader of the Dutch-nationalist Freedom Party of the Netherlands.
- Lars Vilks, who drew a cartoon of a dog with Mohammed’s face. He has been attacked at a public appearance, and an assassination attempt was stopped by police. Vilks has previously drawn Jesus as a pedophile and attempted to secede from Sweden.
- Stéphane Charbonnier, editor of the comedy magazine Charlie Hebdo which reacted to the Arab Spring by calling itself Shari’a Hebdo and publishing Mohammed on the cover, which resulted in its offices being burned down. Charlie Hebdo has since published more offensive cartoons to deliberately provoke the right. In 2006, Charlie Hebdo under editor Philippe Val published the Jyllands-Posten cartoons in 2006 and was subsequently prosecuted by the French government at the direction of Jacques Chirac and found innocent.
- Flemming Rose, an editor at Jyllands-Posten.
- Morris Sadik, National American Coptic Assembly which is basically his blog. His Egyptian citizenship was revoked after the Arab Spring. He had translated into Arabic the promotional clip for the movie Innocence of Muslims, which has been (falsely) blamed for the September 11 anniversary attacks on US assets in 2012, and there have been attempts to blame Sadik for the violence.
- Salman Rushdie, author of the book The Satanic Verses, who was sentenced to death by Ayatollah Khomeini in 1989. One of the book’s editors has been killed and two have survived assassination attempts.
- Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a feminist activist from Somalia who wrote the screenplay for the movie Submission. The movie’s director, Theo van Gogh, was assassinated in 2004.
- Molly Norris, a cartoonist from the US state of Washington who declared Everybody Draw Mohammed Day in response to the death threats received by South Park cartoonists Trey Parker and Matt Stone in 2010.