Pamela Geller and other hosts of the “draw Muhammad” contest were lucky to emerge unscathed after two Muslim gunmen attacked the event Sunday, but they haven’t escaped the wrath of critics who insist the organizers share the blame for what happened.
The two would-be jihadis were killed by police after charging the art exhibit and contest, designed to make a statement on behalf of free speech in the aftermath of January’s deadly Charlie Hebdo attack in France. The satirical publication had satirized Muhammad, the founder of Islam, on numerous occasions.
But critics accused Ms. Geller’s American Freedom Defense Initiative, which sponsored the exhibit and contest in Garland, Texas, with inflaming the issue by holding an event that was bound to incite anger and even violence.
“Yes, we have the right to say things, even offensive things. But should we? Should we act with no consideration of the consequences? Should Geller have hosted an event she knew would draw a violent reaction?” said Haroon Moghul in an op-ed on CNN International.
The conservative website Twitchy compiled a list of Twitter messages blasting the contest and Ms. Geller, including one from New York Times foreign correspondent Rukmini Callimachi.
“Free speech aside, why would anyone do something as provocative as hosting a ’Muhammad drawing contest’?” asked Ms. Callimachi in a Tweet.
Muslim cleric Anjem Choudary described Ms. Geller and Geert Wilders, the Dutch parliamentarian and foe of Islamist extremism who attended the contest, as “agent provocateurs.”
“Freedom of speech does not extend to insulting the Messenger Muhammad (saw) & hence provoking the anger of 1/4 of the world,” said Mr. Choudary, who lives in London.
It wasn’t just Muslims and liberals either. Billionaire businessman Donald Trump said on Fox News that the violence was “disgusting,” but that Ms. Geller “looks like she’s just taunting everybody.”
“What are they doing drawing Muhammad? Isn’t there something else they can draw? They can’t do something else? They have to be in the middle of Texas and on Muhammad?” Mr. Trump said, adding, “I don’t know, maybe she likes risk. What the hell is she doing?”
The Council on American-Islamic Relations condemned the attack on the “anti-Islam event in Garland, Texas, without reservation,” though not without adding that “hatred breeds more hatred and extremism breeds more extremism.”
“Pamela Geller, Robert Spencer, Geert Wilders and the perpetrators of yesterday’s attack all seek to provoke a downward spiral of mutual hostility and mistrust in America and around the world,” said the CAIR statement.
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Josh Marshall, editor and publisher of TalkingPointsMemo.com, called the American Freedom Defense Initiative, the group run by Ms. Geller and Mr. Spencer, a “hate group.” The liberal Southern Poverty Law Center has also labeled the organization a “hate group,” a designation that made its way into reports Monday in The Associated Press and other objective press outlets.
“Political violence is the greatest corrosive of free and ordered societies,” Mr. Marshall said. “But a hate group is a hate group the day after someone takes a shot at them just like it was the day before.”
Of course, the “draw Muhammad” event had plenty of defenders, including Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who said that, “Just as people draw cartoons mocking the governor, people may draw cartoons mocking others.”
Best-selling author Brad Thor said on Twitter that, “Freedom of speech includes the freedom to offend people. There is no such right as the right ’not to be offended.’”
Bosch Fawstin, the cartoonist who won Sunday’s contest, said in an interview on the AFDI website that, “It’s about free speech. It’s about us not being told what we can or can’t do. As Americans, as a free people, as Westerners, we’re being told by an enemy that’s at war with us that we can’t draw their prophet.”
“It’s a sick twisted thing and it has to be fought just by drawing,” said Mr. Fawstin, a former Muslim.
His winning drawing turned out to be vindicated by Sunday’s events. It shows a sword-wielding man looking back at the viewer saying “you can’t draw me!” The cartoonist’s hands shown at the bottom of the incomplete figure reply, “that’s why I draw you.”
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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