On the evening of May 3rd in Garland Texas, two gunmen pulled up to a Mohammed cartoon event and opened fire injuring one unarmed security guard. Both shooters were killed within 15 seconds by police after the first gunshot was fired.
The event that brought out the suicidal attack on U.S. soil was a cartoon drawing contest with a $10,000 grand prize for the top caricature of the prophet Mohammed.
The American Freedom Defense Initiative is the group who organized the event, and labels themselves as a human rights organization, and protectors of freedom of speech. Their tenets include:
• Freedom of speech, “as opposed to Islamic prohibitions of ‘blasphemy’ and ‘slander,'” which quash open dialogue about jihad and Islamic supremacism, the group says.
• “The freedom of conscience — as opposed to the Islamic death penalty for apostasy.”
• Equal rights of all people, “as opposed to … institutionalized discrimination against women and non-Muslims” in Sharia law, or strict Islamic law.
Many critics of the organization have labeled them a hate group due to their targeted stance against Islam in the past. The group was a leader in the fight against the “Ground Zero Mosque”, and have launched several ad campaigns with slogans like, “IT’S NOT ISLAMOPHOBIA … IT’S ISLAMOREALISM.”
The organizers of the event were well aware that an event like this could prompt an attack, and had spent $50,000 in security for the one night, which clearly paid off. It seems like this night was less about exercising freedom of speech, and more about luring out hate filled extremists so that they could be wiped out.
While their methods are extreme and designed to incite rage, there is no excuse to ever take another life because you feel insulted, and this event proves that there are still those among us who believe otherwise. The actions of the childish gunmen have only strengthened the will of The American Freedom Defense Initiative, and reinforced violent Islamic stereotypes.
The event that brought out the suicidal attack on U.S. soil was a cartoon drawing contest with a $10,000 grand prize for the top caricature of the prophet Mohammed.
The American Freedom Defense Initiative is the group who organized the event, and labels themselves as a human rights organization, and protectors of freedom of speech. Their tenets include:
• Freedom of speech, “as opposed to Islamic prohibitions of ‘blasphemy’ and ‘slander,'” which quash open dialogue about jihad and Islamic supremacism, the group says.
• “The freedom of conscience — as opposed to the Islamic death penalty for apostasy.”
• Equal rights of all people, “as opposed to … institutionalized discrimination against women and non-Muslims” in Sharia law, or strict Islamic law.
Many critics of the organization have labeled them a hate group due to their targeted stance against Islam in the past. The group was a leader in the fight against the “Ground Zero Mosque”, and have launched several ad campaigns with slogans like, “IT’S NOT ISLAMOPHOBIA … IT’S ISLAMOREALISM.”
The organizers of the event were well aware that an event like this could prompt an attack, and had spent $50,000 in security for the one night, which clearly paid off. It seems like this night was less about exercising freedom of speech, and more about luring out hate filled extremists so that they could be wiped out.
While their methods are extreme and designed to incite rage, there is no excuse to ever take another life because you feel insulted, and this event proves that there are still those among us who believe otherwise. The actions of the childish gunmen have only strengthened the will of The American Freedom Defense Initiative, and reinforced violent Islamic stereotypes.