Pam Geller and the Dallas shooting

Today, Time Magazine published a response from Pam Geller, whose organization sponsored the cartoon contest in Dallas that attracted two jihadists, to her critics;

So, why are some people blaming me? They’re saying: “Well, she provoked them! She got what she deserved!” They don’t remember, or care to remember, that as the jihadis were killing the Muhammad cartoonists in Paris, their friend and accomplice was murdering Jews in a nearby kosher supermarket. Were the Jews asking for it? Did they “bait” the jihadis? Were they “provoking” them?

Are the Jews responsible for the Nazis? Are the Christians in the Middle East responsible for being persecuted by Muslims?

Drawing Muhammad offends Islamic jihadists? So does being Jewish. How much accommodation of any kind should we give to murderous savagery? To kowtow to violent intimidation will only encourage more of it.

Now, let me say up front that I wouldn’t draw any cartoons of Muhammad, nor would I attend an event which has that activity as it’s focus. Then again, I wouldn’t attend a similar event related to a similar activity involving Jesus, Buddha, or any other religious figure. But, that’s just me. I don’t oppose your attendance or any number of your friends, however. I respect everyone’s beliefs, religious and otherwise.

If you warned me about stepping on a crack in the sidewalk, or walking under a ladder, I’d thank you and avoid doing that, not out of fear, but out of respect for your beliefs.

To me, there are too many other things that I can be vocal about.

The other day, someone wrote in our comments that this wasn’t a First Amendment issue because the government didn’t attempt to silence Geller’s group, but it is, because every terrorist attack is meant to make a political point – to influence government policy. More than a few critics both inside and outside of the US are urging the US government to take action to prevent more cartoon-drawings of the Prophet. That would interfere in our exercise of the First Amendment.

According to the Associated Press, even the Council on American and Islamic Relations, an organization I usually have no use for, condemned the violence, although I wouldn’t use their language;

The Council on American-Islamic Relations said in a statement Monday that a violent response is more insulting to the Muslim faith than any cartoon. The council said “bigoted speech” can’t be an excuse for violence.

Leaders emphasized the American Muslim community’s support for open speech and condemned acts of terror.

The one belief that I can’t support is the one from that part of the world who thinks that everything carries a death penalty. I don’t agree with the gay lifestyle, but I can’t support throwing a gay person off of a building and then stoning them. I don’t like people burning or walking on the US flag, but I wouldn’t advocate shooting everyone at an event that focused on doing that particularly provocative activity, either. While I agree that they probably deserve some sort of punishment, whoever is administering that punishment should probably stop short of physical harm or death.

Yes, Pam Geller provoked a reaction from the two jihadists, along with millions of other American Muslims, and that was her intent from the moment she conceived the notion, but neither she nor her acolytes deserved to die for it. We should also remember that millions of US Muslims didn’t climb in their cars and drive to Dallas to kill the folks at the provocative contest.

I intentionally provoke people every day, and although there are some who pray for my untimely death, they don’t act on those desires, mostly because they know that it would be a difficult endeavor, and that’s the message that the police officer in Dallas sent to jihadists when he sent the two to their reward with his .45 caliber Glock.

Of course, all of this hand wringing about Pam Geller’s contest is diluting the intent of that message.

Category: Crime