Former Gov. George Pataki made a dramatic lunge for publicity in the GOP’s 2016 primary race with a Twitter-broadcast demand that he be arrested by Attorney General Loretta Lynch.
Lynch made it easy for Pataki — who has approximately zero percent of the GOP’s primary vote — by suggesting Thursday that she would arrest people who criticize the ideology of orthodox Islam. “When we talk about the First amendment we [must] make it clear that actions predicated on violent talk are not American. They are not who we are, they are not what we do, and they will be prosecuted,” she said at the Thursday fund-raiser for a radical Muslim advocacy group.
Lynch will have a long, long list of Americans to arrest, because traditional Islam promotes many ideas that are very unpopular among Americans. For example, orthodox Islam urges the murder of people who cause “mischief,” targeted enemies, people who give up Islam, gays, non-Muslims, women who annoyed Mohammad, etc., etc., etc.
However, her phrase — “actions predicated on violent talk” — is vague, and may refer to actions, not statements.
Lynch’s revolutionary or incoherent approach to free speech, however, is a pretty much what her boss wants. In 2012, for example, President Barack Obama used a speech at the United Nation’s General assembly to insist that “The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam.”
Maybe former New York Gov. Pataki just has to take his criticism up a notch — criticize Mohammad! — to get Obama’s attention.