Photos-Atlas Shrugs
Last night in Manchester, Tennessee, there was a public event featuring the US Attorney for the Eastern District of Tennessee, Bill Killian, and the head of the FBI office in Knoxville, Ken Moore, who were speaking on the issue of free speech when it comes to criticism of Islam. The event drew some 2,000 people, many of whom were outside the event. Also present were Pam Geller and Robert Spencer, counter-jihad activists. Below is Geller's posting on Atlas Shrugs
http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2013/06/the-.html
What I am left wondering is what position did Killian take on speech itself? Can criticism of Islam and an open discussion about terrorism and religious intolerance when practiced by Muslims be considered outside the law by Mr Killian?
Here is more from Spencer's Jihad Watch:
http://www.jihadwatch.org/2013/06/the-tennessean-defames-patriots-who-stood-for-free-speech.html
Here is a report with a 2-minute video clip from Nashville's The Tennessean:
http://www.tennessean.com/article/20130605/NEWS21/306050155/Muslim-group-s-TN-forum-feds-disrupted-by-heckling
In the video, a reference is made by the speaker to 18 USC 241: Here is that law:
http://codes.lp.findlaw.com/uscode/18/I/13/241
The Conservative Tea Party types don't seem to be great fans of civility.
ReplyDeleteThe crowd/mob was heckling and shouting the speakers down for nearly the entire event.
I know some Muslim students at UCI did the same thing to Israeli Ambassador Oren a few years ago. But they were young. Most of the hecklers at the Tennessee events were seniors.
Nelly,
ReplyDeleteI don't recall any mention of the Tea Party in this story. As for the heckling, my thinking is to let the speaker talk then participate in the Q and A. In this case, questions had to be submitted by writing, which pretty much limits the discourse. I was present at the Oren event at UCI. Since then, the students who did that have gone onto to graduate or law school. They have returned to UCI for MSU events and proudly proclaimed they would do it again.
Right now, I am interested in hearing the full presentation by these speakers and learning how they would restrict discussion of this topic in America. Thus far, I have only seen the clip I posted.
What I am left wondering is what position did Killian take on speech itself?
ReplyDeleteGood question. There seems to be a lot of raving about what the U.S. attorney's action MIGHT mean, and darn little of exactly what he said.
I think any speech, printed matter, or on line post advocating that citizens freely shoot at Muslims for being Muslims violates the U.S. code Gary cited.
I don't see this as a Tea Party issue either. A person can identify with the Tea Party and be Muslim, or be not hostile to Muslims, or advocate taking armed vigilante action against Muslims.
I think the crowd is probably indulging in knee-jerk reactions without knowing what is happening or why, which is poor citizenship and stupid, but they don't seem to have disrupted the event itself.