Winning ‘Draw Mohammed’ Picture Goes Up On eBay

The image that won the “draw Mohammed contest” attacked by terrorists in Garland, Texas, is now up for sale on eBay.

The art depicts an artist drawing Mohammed with the dialogue “‘You can’t draw me.’ ‘That’s why I draw you.'” It was drawn by Bosch Fawstin.

Fawstin opens the bidding by saying, “Own a piece of history. Own the Cartoon at the Center of a Terrorist Attack.” The bidding ends Saturday May 7 unless someone ponies up a dollar less than a quarter million dollars to buy the drawing straight out. At the time of writing the bidding was already more than $3,000.

Fawstin’s picture won the first annual Muhammad Art Exhibit and Contest organized by Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer for the American Freedom Defense Initiative. The First Amendment themed event was attacked by terrorists with AK-47s, although the terrorists were shot dead by an alert officer before being able to attack the event.

Geert Wilders who was at the event when the attack was repelled tweeted out the EBAY page:

Fawstin describes the significance of the drawing in the description of the auction:

My name is Bosch Fawstin and I’m a recovered Muslim. Shortly after my Mohammad cartoon was announced as the winner of Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer’s AFDI Draw Mohammad contest event and exhibition in Garland Texas, two jihadists came to try to murder the approximately 200 people who attended the event. They would have succeeded if not for a heroic, sharp-shooting policeman who blew their heads off before they could even enter the building. The attack and event became an international news story and my life has never been the same since. Following the attack, I received more death threats than I ever had, even though I’ve been drawing Mohammad for years. But despite the danger, I want to continue drawing Mohammad. These days, there are fewer cartoonists willing to draw “He Who Must Not Be Drawn,” and, for me, that’s just more reason to do so, especially in a world where Free Speech is under siege from all sides.

What kind of world would it be if no one drew Mohammad? The Islamic world. I never want to live in that world, and drawing Mohammad every so often is how I personally keep that world at bay. My winning Mohammad cartoon explicitly spells out why I draw Mohammad in the first place. I never set out to draw Mohammad until the Danish cartoonists who did so were threatened with death over it. Though their Mohammad cartoons were blamed for inciting Islamic violence, in truth it’s Islamic violence which incites Mohammad cartoons.

My winning Mohammad cartoon led me to an event where I could have died if jihadists had their way, so it’s the most significant and most famous cartoon I’ve ever done—and might ever do. My cartoon became a symbol of Free Speech because drawing Mohammad has now become the most daring way of exercising one’s right to Free Speech in today’s world. Based on what some have written about it, it has become one of the most important pieces of art in recent memory.