The List
In July 2013, the al-Qa’ida-produced magazine Inspire released an issue that included an official “hit-list.” Written in English, it names eleven individuals, all accused of blasphemy against the Prophet Mohammed and “crimes against Islam.” The list is the third and most recent published by Inspire, following two published in 2010 and 2011. The following list includes brief bios and backgrounds of all 11 individuals:
1. Salman Rushdie
The Indian-born British novelist is perhaps the most well known on the list, due to his controversial novel The Satanic Verses, published in 1988. The fictional work uses retellings of portions of the life of Mohammad. While critically acclaimed, the work incited outrage from Muslims around the globe for what they alleged was a mockery of the sacred texts of Islam. The accusations transcended the lines of Shia and Sunni Islam, as prolific authorities from both sects issued condemnation and ultimatums against Rushdie. On Valentines Day, 1989, the former supreme leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, issued a fatwa calling for Rushdie’s assassination. Al-Qa’ida and other jihadist groups have also issued similar death threats against him. Soon after these threats surfaced, the British government issued a protective police detail for Rushdie. He has remained a high-profile target for militant Islamist organizations around the globe.
2. Terry Jones
The 63-year-old outspoken Missouri native is the pastor of the Dove World Outreach Center, a small, controversial church in Florida. Jones has declared himself a presidential candidate for both the 2012 and the 2016 elections. He is also vocally anti-Muslim and maintains membership in multiple Christian fundamentalist organizations. His notoriety in the Islamist world stems from his public threat to burn copies of the Qur’an on the 9th anniversary of the September 11th attacks. In March 2011, he finally followed through with this threat. This act was met with riots and violence across the Muslim world and disapproval from leaders in the U.S. government, including Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, and Barack Obama, among others. Besides being named on the Inspire hit list, the Pakistan-based jihadist group Lashkar-e-Taiba has issued a $2.2 million reward for his assassination.
3. Kurt Westergaard
The 79-year old Danish cartoonist is known for creating a cartoon illustrating Mohammad wearing a turban with a bomb inside of it. The cartoon was released by the widely-circulated Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten on September 30th, 2005. The cartoons sparked protests in Copenhagen and across the Muslim world in the weeks following its release. The cartoons received extensive media and political attention, and sparked debates regarding free speech, blasphemy, and the “right to offend.” The United States and a number of other nations pressured Jyllands-Posten to “self-censor” the illustrations. On the other end of the spectrum, a number of politicians and public figures rallied behind the Westergaad and Jyllands-Posten, declaring the publication and their resilience a bastion of free speech and expression in a world increasingly hostile to the free dissemination of ideas and opinions.
Death threats directed at Westergaard poured in from around the world. In February 2008, two Tunisians and a Moroccan-born Dane were arrested and charged with plotting to murder Westergaard; Danish police and intelligence coordinated to provide Westergaard with around-the-clock protective services. On New Year’s Day in 2010, Westergaard and his 5-year old granddaughter were attacked in their home by an axe-wielding Somali-native with links to an East Africa al-Qa’ida affiliate organization, as well as Somalia’s al-Shabaab. Police arrived just in time to prevent the attack.
4. Flemming Rose
A former journalist and media correspondent to the Soviet Union, Flemming Rose was the cultural editor of Jyllands-Posten during the Westergaard cartoon controversy (and has retained that position since). Rose rejected criticisms of his judgment and publically defended Westergaard and the decision, stating in February 2006 in The Washington Post:
“Has Jyllands-Posten disrespected Islam? . . . When I visit a mosque I show my respect by taking off my shoes, I follow the customs just as I do in a church, synagogue or other holy place. But if a believer demands that I, as an unbeliever, observe his taboos in the public domain, he is not asking for my respect, but for my submission. And that is incompatible with secular democracy . . . as a former correspondent to the Soviet Union, I am sensitive about calls for censorship on the grounds of insult. It is the trick of totalitarian movements; label any critique or call for debate as an insult and punish the offenders . . . the lesson from the Cold War is: if you give into totalitarian impulses once, new demands follow. The West prevailed in the Cold War because we stood by our fundamental values and did not appease totalitarian tyrants.”
Death threats were issued against Flemming Rose, and a plot to murder him was discovered in 2008.
5. Carston Juste
The 67 year-old Dane was the editor-in-chief of Jyllands-Posten during the cartoon controversy. Juste was held responsible by vengeful jihadists and disapproving Western politicians alike for his role in the publication and dissemination of the satirical and inflammatory depiction the prophet Mohammed. Juste appeared in the aforementioned 2013 al-Qa’ida produced list of targets.
6. Lars Vilks
The Swedish art professor has received media and public attention for his illustrations of religious figures and icons. The 68-year old artist’s work includes several depictions Mohammad and Jesus and has been circulated in Swedish media and press. In 2007, Vilk illustrated Mohammad in the likeness of a roundabout dog. These drawings were scheduled to be featured in an art show in Tallerud, but were subsequently retracted for fear of inciting outrage. Vilk then submitted his works to several other art shows in Sweden, all of which declined over similar concerns. The illustrations were eventually published by the Orebro-based regional newspaper Nerikes Allehando on August 18th. Domestic and overseas Muslim organizations, as well as the Iranian, Pakistani, Afghan, Egyptian, and Jordanian governments all condemned Nerikes Allehando for their decision to run the drawings.
After a number of threats, including the Iraq-based al-Qa’ida affiliate-sponsored $150,000 bounty for his assassination, the Swedish government issued Vilks a protective detail. In 2009, three U.S. citizens were arrested and charged with plotting to murder Vilks. On the same day, a small group of Yemeni and Moroccan refugees in Ireland were arrested on the same charges. In May 2010, Muslim students physically assaulted the Swedish professor while he was giving a lecture at Uppsala University, and he suffered minor injuries. Later in 2010, Somali-based terrorist organization al-Shabaab posted a video on the internet calling for his murder for blasphemy. In September 2011, several men were arrested on terrorist criminal charges, and it was later revealed their intended target was Mr. Vilks.
7. Geert Wilders
Geert Wilders is the leader of the right-wing Party of Freedom in the Netherlands. Known (among other things) for his anti-Islamic positions, Wilders has likened the Qu‘ran to Nazi propaganda, and regards Islam as a totalitarian political ideology rather than a religion. Wilders once said in a public appearance, “I don’t hate Muslims. . . I hate their book and their ideology” and also asserted that if Mohammed lived in Holland today and lived as he did as recorded in Islam’s holy texts he would be “hunted down as a terrorist.” The film Fitna, was released in 2008 and featured his views on Islam’s negative impact on society. Shortly after the release of the film, al-Qa’ida publically called for his murder. In 2010, imam Feiz Mohamad issued a fatwa against Wilders, calling for his beheading. In July 2010, AQAP leader Anwar al-Awlaki included Wilders in the first hit list published in Inspire.
8. Molly Norris
On May 20th 2010, American cartoonist Molly Norris distributed illustrations of anthropomorphized objects claiming to the prophet Mohammad. She circulated the cartoon online to bloggers, featuring a caption satirically labeling May 20th 2010 to be “Everybody Draw Mohammad Day.” The illustration and caption was a response to Comedy Central’s self-censorship of an episode of the satirical cartoon South Park which featured fictional characters which depicted and lampooned the prophet Mohammad. The self-censorship was ostensibly a capitulation to threats issued by online radical Islamists threatening South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone with murder. Norris’ cartoon sparked a large online movement on social media and in the blogosphere defending the intention behind its creation – the defense and exercise of free speech. The cartoon and the movements it prompted received the typical attention associated with similar instances, both from government and media entities. In the July 2010 edition of Inspire, al-Awlaki included Norris among the listed targets. Since this inclusion and warning from the FBI, Norris has changed her name and gone into hiding.
9. Morris Swadiq
An Egyptian-born lawyer and political activist, Swadiq is the least well known name on al-Qa’ida’s list. On September 10th 2010, the 73-year old Coptic Christian allegedly protested at ground-zero with a crucifix, Bible, and American flag, shouting condemnations against the Islamic religion. Among other personal acts of protest against Islam, Swadiq also purportedly e-mailed an unknown number of journalists a link to the anti-Islamic video Innocence of Muslims.
10. Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Ayaan is a Somali-born activist and politician who formerly served in the Dutch parliament representing the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy. She is known for her work in women’s rights and her outspoken condemnation of Islam. Ayaan wrote the 2004 English-language film Submission, which criticized the practice of Islam and its depravation of human rights, especially in the Middle East and Africa. The presumed former leader Hostfad terrorist network, Dutch-Moroccan Mohammed Bouyeri killed Theo van Gough, the film’s director (shot eight times and stabbed repeatedly) on November 2ed 2004. Ayaan‘s public criticism of Islam and her perceived blasphemy of the prophet have garnered death threats from extremists.
11. Stephane Charbonnier
Charbonnier, the former editor-in-chief of Charlie Hebdo, was murdered, along with 10 other employees and a police officer, on January 7th 2015 by one of the Kouachi brothers. “Charb” started working as a cartoonist in the late 1980s for Les Novellas du Val-d’Oise and Utopia Cinema, and later worked for a number of other French publications before joining Charlie Hebdo in 1992. Throughout his career Charbonnier routinely satirized a range of public issues, from politics, to discrimination, to religion. On November 2ed 2011, Charlie Hebdo was firebombed a day before it was scheduled to release content which included Islamic topics. In September of the following year, online jihadists issued death threats against Charbonnier. In 2013, he was included on the published list of al-Qa’ida targets.
