Lars Vilks, the Swedish cartoonist that was giving a talk about free speech when a gunman opened fire in Denmark on Saturday, told France 24 that he believes he was the main target, but it isn't going to stop him.
"I'm not going to let this attack scare me. I'm going to continue just like I always have," 68-year-old Vilks said.
"To be honest I don't really see any other candidates (for the attack at the event)," he told France 24. "I'm living with a very high level of threats against my life, so it makes sense that I was the one (being targeted)."
In 2007, Vilks depicted the prophet Muhammad as a dog. Since then, he has been the target of death threats and attempts against his life. According to France 24, two brothers were convicted of arson in 2004 after trying to burn down the cartoonist's house. In 2014, an American woman was sentenced to 10 years in prison for scheming to kill Vilks.
Vilks was speaking in Copenhagen about free speech following the attack on Charlie Hebdo editors in Paris in January - that's when he heard "multiple gunshots."
"It was surreal. At first I didn't know what was going on," he told France 24.
Vilks was carried off by security and hidden in a storage room with the chairwoman of the committee holding the panel discussion.
"It was really dramatic. We had to stay there for maybe 30 minutes," Vilks told France 24. "I wasn't that scared though, we were surrounded by police with their weapons pulled."
Vilks refuses to relinquish his freedom of expression. He told France 24: "Considering they (the terrorists) only understand the language of weapons, it's kind of useless to try to talk with them about the freedom of expression. The only thing left to do is to make them realize that their project is meaningless and carry on the way we do."
