Seven Muslims held over plot to murder cartoonist

Seven Muslims arrested in the Republic are being questioned over an alleged plot to murder a Swedish cartoonist who depicted the Prophet Mohammed with the body of a dog.

Three men, their wives and one other man were detained in a series of raids in the south east of the country by anti-terrorist units acting on intelligence from the CIA, FBI and European agencies.

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Research resources on Islam and terrorism

Commentary/resources by ReligionNewsBlog.com

Some of those arrested were originally from Algeria, Libya, the United States and Palestine and have been legally in Ireland for up to 10 years. They were allegedly involved in an international plot to murder Lars Vilks whose controversial depictions of the Muslim prophet were printed in a newspaper in 2007.

Islamic terrorist group al Qaida put a 100,000 US dollar (74,000 euro) bounty on the cartoonist’s head, forcing him into police protection in an isolated area of Sweden.

Senior gardai do not believe those arrested are members of the terrorist group and stressed there was no threat to Irish security.
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Superintendent John Gilligan, from the garda press office, said the investigation involved security agencies in a number of countries.
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