Lieutenant Colonel Allen West (USA-Ret) picked up on the Breitbart Texas report, via his website, announcing the Muhammad Art Exhibit and Contest being put on by free-speech activist Pamela Geller. West is a former Congressman from Florida who soon will be living in the Dallas area.
“Texans will be staging their own conference in support of free speech, on the same location where the January conference was held,” West’s Editor-in-Chief Michele Hickford wrote in an article on West’s website. “Pamela Geller and her American Freedom Defense Initiative is planning a “Draw the Prophet” art and cartoon contest in Garland [northeast of Dallas] on May 3rd.”
Hickford then quotes Breitbart Texas’ report, “the contest will take submissions online and the winner will be announced at the event in Garland. The winning cartoonist will receive a $10,000 prize. The exhibit will feature images of Islam’s prophet in both historical and contemporary settings. There will also be a series of speeches by internationally renowned free-speech advocates.”
The art exhibit and contest which will award the winner with a prize of $10,000 will be held on the same location where the Muslim Stand with the Profit Conference was held — the Garland Independent School District’s Curtis Culwell Center. “Geller says the art exhibit is the next logical step following AFDI’s Free Speech Rally in Garland which she staged on the day of the Islamic event. “This event will stand for free speech and show that Americans will not be cowed by violent Islamic intimidation,” she stated. “That is a crucial stand to take as Islamic assaults on the freedom of speech, our most fundamental freedom, are growing more insistent.”
Hickford also commented on the Breitbart Texas report about the Islamic Tribunal in Dallas. “But there certainly is a lot brewing in Texas,” Hickford wrote. “In fact, a ‘voluntary’ Islamic Tribunal has opened up shop in the Dallas metroplex. According to its website, ‘the Islamic Tribunal is a unique institution of its kind in the United States of America. It is the intention of erecting this institution in order to set a precedence (sic) that will be emulated and duplicated throughout the country.’”
“Ah,” she commented, “so it could be coming to a community near you as well!”
“Okaaaay,” she continued. “but it also says stoning adulterers, cutting of the hands, polyandry [Hickford’s editor’s note: Really? Women having more than one husband? Am I missing something here?] and the like (all can be traced in the relevant literature and can be explained in their Islamic legal mentality and rational context in fairness and justice), are mainly a part of Islamic Criminal Law. In fact criminal law within Islam only makes up a fraction of the Shari’ah. It is unscholarly and unfair to generalize that type of understanding, that is Criminal Law, to compromise the whole of Islamic law if we stick to speaking in technical terms.”
“Perhaps it is unfair, but correct me if I’m wrong, it doesn’t seem like the Tribunal is disputing that those punishments are part of Shari’ah.” Hickford concluded. “We shall see how well everyone ‘coexists.’”
Bob Price is a senior political news contributor for Breitbart Texas and a member of the original Breitbart Texas team. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX.
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