Lars Hedegaard

Lars Hedegaard Jensen (born 19 September 1942) is a Danish author, historian, editor, journalist and critic of Islam. He established the International Free Press Society in 2009, an extension of the Danish Free Press Society founded in 2004, of which he served as chairman until 2014. Hedegaard was the target of an assassination attempt in 2013, after which he has lived under police protection. At first a high school teacher, he later worked as an editorial publisher of Sage Publishing in Los Angeles in the mid-to-late 1970s. he was politically active as a member of the Trotskyist Socialist Workers Party until 1982. and the chief editor of Dagbladet Information in the late 1980s, He was an editor for the Nordic Council throughout the 1990s,

Criticism of Islam Hedegaard became known as a critic of Islam shortly after the September 11 attacks in 2001. He co-authored the book I krigens hus: Islams kolonisering af Vesten about Islam's "colonisation of the West" in the "house of war" with Helle Merete Brix in 2003, which has been described as a part of the "Eurabia narrative". having participated in several of the international counter-jihad conferences held since 2007.

He was a member of the Danish People's Party, although it was not publicly known, until resigning his membership in 2010 after he had been charged with hate speech. He joined the New Right party in 2016. In 2014 he released an animated film that he co-produced with Pakistani filmmaker Imran Firasat entitled Aisha and Muhammad, which focuses on the life of the fifty-year-old Islamic prophet Muhammad and his marriage to a then six-year-old Aisha. He has also collaborated with Lars Vilks, known for his Muhammad drawings controversy.

Hate speech trial and acquittal In December 2009, Hedegaard was reported to the police by Yilmaz Evcil of the Århus Municipality integration council for comments made against Muslims. He had made critical remarks against the Islamic society, which included "they rape their own children. You hear it all the time. Girls in Muslim families are raped by their uncles, their cousins or their father". He was first acquitted in January 2011 because the statements were made in an interview with the blog Snaphanen that he claimed he did not know would be publicised publicly. Later the same year, in May, the acquittal was reversed as he was convicted of hate speech under the Article 266b, and fined 5,000 kr, even as he clarified that he did not intend to accuse all Muslims of abusing their children. He appealed the second verdict, and in April 2012, the Supreme Court of Denmark finally acquitted him in a 7–0 decision.

Assassination attempt On 5 February 2013, a gunman posing as a mailman attempted to shoot Hedegaard at his home. The gunshot narrowly missed his head, and the assailant escaped after a scuffle after his gun jammed. The Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt condemned the attack and said the case was even more severe if the motive was to prevent Hedegaard from using his free speech. Danish Muslims responded by rallying to defend Hedegaard and to defend his right to free speech. The Islam Society, which had been heavily involved in the protest against the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons and helped to publicise their opposition internationally, stated that it regretted its role during the controversy, and the Danish branch of Minhaj-ul-Quran demonstrated outside the City Hall in defence of Hedegaard and free speech.

Since the attack, Hedegaard has been constantly guarded by the Danish Security and Intelligence Service (PET), and has had to live in hiding in a rural place in Denmark on a secret address. He has said that the high rent cost of the highly secured residence offered to him by PET has ruined him financially. He went on a leave of absence as chairman of the Danish Free Press Society after the assassination attempt, and finally left the position to Katrine Winkel Holm in 2014. He wrote a book about the assassination attempt in 2015, titled Attentatet. He was thereafter charged with naming the suspected shooter in his book against a court prohibition, and in 2016 sentenced to a fine of 10,000 kr.

In November 2016, the US State Department issued a note, designating three persons as terror-operatives, one of whom was Basil Hassan, an external operations plotter for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), who was accused of having attempted to shoot Hedegaard. Hassan was said to have been released as part of an alleged exchange for 49 hostages held by ISIL after having been arrested in Turkey in 2014, and was believed to have travelled to Syria to join ISIL after his release. The prohibition on naming Hassan by a Danish court was lifted in December 2016.

Memoirs and recognition Hedegaard authored two volumes of memoirs in 2010 and 2011, Verden var så rød, mor, about the period 1942–1980, and Ræven går derude, mor, about the period 1980–2011.

Personal life Hedegaard has been married twice. In 1969, he converted to Judaism in connection with his marriage to his first wife, Jewish-American Barbara Levin. Hedegaard has three children and one step-daughter.