US Cartoonist Lands on Hit List for Muhammad Event

(July 12) -- Molly Norris, the American cartoonist who started "Everybody Draw Muhammad Day," has been placed on the hit list of radical Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki.

Al-Awlaki singled out Norris as "a prime target of assassination" for suggesting earlier this year that Americans draw the prophet to protest the censorship of a "South Park" episode that depicted Muhammad in a bear costume. Islam forbids graphical depictions of Muhammad.

Norris has since backed off from her protest.

The New York Daily News reports that the FBI considers the hit list a "very serious threat" and that al-Awlaki is thought to be connected to the Times Square bomb plot and the would-be Christmas Day bomber.

From the beginning, the online "Everybody Draw Muhammad Day" event sparked a fierce debate over the role of satire and censorship. Free speech advocates came to Norris' defense and created a Facebook page supporting the event, while some Muslim and civil rights groups called the day offensive.

Mike Luckovich, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution cartoonist, said the event was unnecessarily offensive. "In this instance, I'm not going to draw Muhammad," he told The Washington Post in May. "I wouldn't insult any religion's prophet to make a point about free speech. If an issue arises and depicting Muhammad in a cartoon about that issue makes sense, I will," he said.

But the call for Norris' execution -- along with "others who participated in her campaign" and "any Western target" -- has taken the controversy to a new and dangerous level.

"The proper solution to this growing campaign of defamation" is "the execution of those involved," al-Awlaki said, according to Agence France-Presse.

Norris called the event off in May, apologized to Muslims and said the movement had spun out of control and become offensive.

"The vitriol this 'day' has brought out of people who only want to draw obscene images is offensive to Muslims who did nothing to endanger our right to expression in the first place," Norris wrote on her website. "I apologize to people of Muslim faith and ask that this 'day' be called off."

But that apology seems to have fallen on deaf ears. The hit list, published in Inspire, an al-Qaida-sponsored online magazine geared toward recruiting young American Muslims to violent jihad, is not likely to be an idle threat.

Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard has been repeatedly targeted by terrorists for drawing Muhammad. In February, he and his granddaughter hid in a panic room in his home as a man, inspired by jihad, tried to kill him with an ax.

In an interview with Al-Jazeera earlier this year, Al-Awlaki denied encouraging the Christmas Day bomber but said he supports his efforts.

"Yes, I support what Umar Farouk [Abdulmutallab] has done after I have been seeing my brothers being killed in Palestine for more than 60 years, and others being killed in Iraq and in Afghanistan," al-Awlaki said. "And in my tribe too, U.S. missiles have killed 17 women and 23 children, so do not ask me if al-Qaida has killed or blown up a U.S. civil jet after all this. The 300 Americans are nothing comparing to the thousands of Muslims who have been killed."

The FBI has expressed public concern.

"We understand the absolute seriousness of a threat from an al-Qaida-inspired magazine and are attempting to do everything in our power to assist the individuals on that list to effectively protect themselves and change their behavior to make themselves less of a target," FBI counterterrorism agent David Gomez told the Daily News.