Remember when this was the kind of thing you'd find at the back of a newsprint magazine, offering you the chance to draw Woody Woodpecker or Betty Boop for a $25 prize and a cartooning instruction book? Geez, I remember stuff like that at the back of my Archie comics when I was little.

Times have changed, though, and $25 doesn't buy quite as many Sea Monkeys as it used to. Nowadays a book of art instruction goes for more than that! Heck, you'd be lucky if you could buy 5 Archie comics!

Now the cartoon prizes are much bigger, and the rules have changed. No longer do you submit your attempt along with a proof of purchase and a $1 entry fee. No, now you have to go out and slaughter another artist like a lamb.

The purported head of al-Qaeda in Iraq has offered a reward for the murder of a Swedish cartoonist over his drawing depicting the Prophet Muhammad.

The $100,000 (£49,310) reward would be raised by 50% if Lars Vilks was "slaughtered like a lamb" said the audio message aired on the internet.

The speaker, said to be Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, threatened a new offensive during the holy month of Ramadan.

Last month's cartoon showed Prophet Muhammad's head on a dog's body.

Several Muslim countries protested.

Hmmm... wasn't more than two or three years ago that the Religion of Peace was telling us that violence during the "Holy Month of Ramadan" was haram, or verboten. I guess they noticed we weren't buying into that bullshit, dropped the charade, and went back to what they do best: Threats and killings.

But Saturday's taped message said the militants were announcing a "call to shed the blood of the Lars who dared to insult our Prophet".

"During this generous month we announce an award worth $100,000 to the person who kills this infidel criminal," the speaker said.

He also announced a $50,000 reward for the killing of the editor of the newspaper.

Yup, Islam is a generous religion indeed.

Labels: Blasphemy, Cartoons, Islam, Islamic Terror, Ramadan