The cartoonist who suggested ( and then rapidly backed away from ) the idea that everyone on the internet should draw the prophet Mohammed after the creators of South Park received death threats for doing so has been warned of threats against her by the FBI.
Molly Norris has reportedly removed all her websites from the internet, (in fact, MollyNorris.com now redirects to a site my computer identified as “dangerous”) and Anwar al-Awlaki, a popular cleric “linked” to the botched Times Square bombing and the Fort Hood massacre, has called her a “prime target” for execution and stated that her “proper abode is hellfire.” David Gomez, the FBI’s assistant special agent of counterterrorism in Norris’ hometown of Seattle, spoke to the NYDN about the “very serious” threat published in the new English language Al-Qaeda magazine Inspire :
“We understand the absolute seriousness of a threat from an Al Qaeda-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,” Gomez said.
While it appears Norris has been doing just that since the cartoon and the idea went viral, it doesn’t seem to be helping the cartoonist. Back when the controversy began, Norris posted a letter distancing herself from the internet adoption of “Everybody Draw Mohammed” day, which you can read here . Al-Awlaki threatened a total of eight artists in Inspire, a publication a senior US counterterrorism official likened to “Al Qaeda’s Tiger Beat. ” Probably also grounds for Fatwa, but the NYDN didn’t publish his name.
