"Everybody
Draw Muhammad Day" cartoonist Molly Norris was placed on an execution
hit list by Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, reported the New York Daily
News Monday.
The Yemeni-American cleric Awlaki was said to have inspired the Fort Hood, Texas massacre and an attempted car bomb in
Times Square. Awlaki is a 39-year-old US citizen born in New Mexico.
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Norris was called a "prime target" whose "proper
abode is hellfire," according to the New York Daily News.
The FBI warned Norris that they consider Awlaki's threat "very serious."
Awlaki condemned Norris in an English al-Qaida magazine called
Inspire, in which he also
targeted eight other cartoonists for their "blasphemous caricatures" of the
prophet Muhammad, said the New York Daily News.
"The medicine
prescribed by the Messenger of Allah is the execution of those
involved," wrote Awlaki.
May 20
was declared by Norris as "Everybody Draw Muhammad Day" in defiance of
terrorist threats against cartoonists depicting the prophet Muhammad.
Norris has since retreated from the concept, saying "I regret that I
made my cartoon the way I made it."
According to the New York Daily
News, the FBI's assistant special agent in charge of counter
terrorism in Seattle, David Gomez, said that "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."
Norris's neighbor told the
New York
Daily News yesterday there was increased police presence on their
street.