Inspired by Knute at Every Kinda People, Conservative Swede conceived the idea of the Öland Modoggie Free Speech Flag, and asked for my help in executing it. As CS explains below, by doing this we become part of Lars Vilks’ grand art project.This all came about because an angry Pakistani mob, thinking they were burning a Swedish flag, burned a green and yellow flag by mistake. Conservative Swede wrote to me about it the other day:

The green/yellow flag “meme” is already spreading somewhat. The green/yellow flag is a real Scandinavian flag, but for the tiny island Öland. Kurt Lundgren (a great Swedish blogger) is from Öland and made fun of how the diplomatic relations between Pakistan and Öland now are worse than ever.

From a tiny grain of sand grows a great lustrous pearl, and so Conservative Swede presents…
Join the  art project

Lars Vilks’ Modoggies are an art project of his, and have been all along. Vilks is a modernist and sees the interaction with the audience as more important than the artwork as such. Thus he considers Ahmadinejad’s statement that “Zionists are behind such a dirty job” and Al Qaeda’s death threats as part of his artwork, as well as other reactions such as comments at his blog………….  GoV & Conservative  Swede

 På det hela taget är islam ”ingen höjdare”

– Som konstnär är jag ju väldigt nöjd med det här med al-Qaida. Det är en tolvtaggare. Det är ju väldigt sällan en konstnär lyckas involvera en sådan organisation i sina verk, säger Lars Vilks med mild ironi.
 Visst är det svårt att tänka sig al-Qaida komma i en kamelkaravan här över slätten. – Jag ska skaffa en hund som skydd. Det räcker med en liten. För när en terrorist rör vid den måste han tvätta sig – det är ett så smutsigt djur. [..]På det hela taget är islam ”ingen höjdare”, tycker Vilks.

Lars Vilks må flytte  hjemmefra

Politiken versionen: den Seidenfadenske  virkelighed

stærkt vinklet. Politiken lader ingen chance gå fra sig til at drive  oppositionspolitik. Sandheden er, at Reinfeldt netop ikke  har  lært den vigtigste  lektie, og “calm” – ret så tilkæmpet –  han er  hunderæd for at 1/2 mio svenske muslimer eksploderer:

Following the death threats made by an Iraqi al-Qaida group against Swedish cartoonist and artist Lars Vilks, Sweden’s Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt has spoken out in favour of continuing the dialogue with Muslims. Swedish Muslim organisations distanced themselves from the threats. In Denmark’s cartoon dispute at the beginning of last year, the Danish head of government and certain Muslim organisations had adopted a confrontational stance. The Danish newspaper comments: “It would be oversimplifying to say the Swedes are acting more sensibly. Firstly, the Swedish crisis is basically a repeat, but Sweden has learned from Denmark’s mistakes… Secondly, the Swedish government doesn’t have to contend with a supporting party [the right-wing populist Danish People’s Party] which regards Islam as a plague for Europe.”
Politiken (Denmark):  Sweden’s calm reaction to the death threats

David Pryce – Jones : Saving Lars Vilks