Australian cartoonist under police protection
Xinhua, January 13, 2015 Adjust font size:
Famous Australian cartoonist Larry Pickering has been placed under police protection after he posted a derogatory cartoon on his website depicting the prophet Muhammad skewered on a pencil and roasting above a fire.
The well known and long time strident satirist was visited at home on Queensland's Gold Coast by detectives to warn he was at risk of reprisals after posting the cartoon last week following the Parisian murders by Muslim extremists, who primarily targeted cartoonists.
The officers told Pickering he had "upset a lot of people" and they were putting the award-winning cartoonist under high-priority protective surveillance, local newspaper the Gold Coast Bulletin reported Tuesday.
Like Jewish people, Muslims do not eat pork on religious grounds, believing them to be unhealthy.
"They didn't say specifically why they were there,"Pickering said.
"I guess they must have picked up some intelligence or chatter after I did the cartoon."
"They gave me their details and special phone numbers and said if I call they will be there in minutes."
Pickering, 72, has been a high profile controversial figure for his entire career. Endi