Garland attack: Cartoon contest winner Speaks Out

Updated
Mohammed Cartoon Artist Winner Speaks Out After Shooting
Mohammed Cartoon Artist Winner Speaks Out After Shooting

By NATHAN BICKELL

GARLAND, TX – You wouldn't think a contest about cartoons would create chaos. Unless that is, you challenge folks to draw Muhammad. Now the winner of the contest has gone public, and he's not happy because almost nobody will publish his work.

Bosch Fawstin won $12,500 for his cartoon depicting the Prophet Mohammed saying, "You can't draw me." It shows an artist replying, "That's why I draw you."

NewsFix spoke to Fawstin on the phone Wednesday, but he's refusing all on-camera interviews unless his cartoon is broadcast. So far, the response has been, "thanks, but no thanks."

Fawstin did talk to Fox News Monday. He wrongly believed they were going to broadcast his art.

"As people who love freedom, as the entire west, we need to hit back," he told Greta Van Sustren. "Not with violence, with the truth, with our art, with our writing. We can't be cowed by this because once free speech goes it's over."

So, who is this guy?

Fawstin says he's a former Muslim and has a history of drawing provocative cartoons.

Fawstin admits he's received death threats and wouldn't tell us where he lives. But he denies reports in the Wall Street Journal that he has gone into hiding.

"If everybody in America drew Mohammed, what is ISIS going to do? They can't kill everybody," said Fawstin's friend, Kfir, who wouldn't give his last name.

Advertisement