Jon Ritzheimer is a former Marine, and he has no middle ground when it comes to Islam.
His T-shirt pretty much says it all: “F— Islam.”
Ritzheimer is the organizer of Friday’s “Freedom of Speech Rally” outside the Islamic Community Center in Phoenix.
It’s the mosque that Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi attended for a time. They’re the men who drove from Arizona to a Dallas suburb to shoot up a Prophet Mohammed cartoon contest there. Both were killed by police early this month.
Many Muslims consider demeaning depictions of Mohammed to be blasphemous and banned by Islamic law.
“This is in response to the recent attack in Texas where 2 armed terrorist(s), with ties to ISIS, attempted Jihad,” the event’s Facebook page said.
Some 600 people say they’re attending.
It’s scheduled to start at 6:15 p.m., about the time evening prayers are taking place inside the center. The rally also features its own cartoon contest, similar to the one targeted in Texas.
“I think the whole thing, the cartoon contest especially, I think it’s stupid and ridiculous,” Ritzheimer said, “but it’s what needs to take place in order to expose the true colors of Islam.”
D.C. Metro ending issue-oriented ads after Mohammed submission
Phoenix police Chief Joe Yahner is personally involved in arranging public safety around the event, he told CNN affiliate KPHO.
“There’s a lot of things in the works. The intelligence related to the crowd is changing all the time,” he said.
Gov. Doug Ducey hopes common sense will prevail in the event, he said.
“Of course I’m a believer in free speech and the First Amendment. I’m also a believer in good judgment and common sense,” he told the affiliate.
These people should grow a pair of nuts and go exercise their 1st amendment rights outside a mosque in Rahmadi.
shortstop
Marines again…;)
kc
From the linked article:
kc
I wonder if Ritzheimer ever “served” in the Middle East.
scav
Toddlers gotta stomp their widdle feet and whine. (B)oorah-Hoo.
C.V. Danes
Interesting. Perhaps someone should submit a cartoon of Jesus shoving a cross up his — to get a good idea of Christian colors when it comes to free speech.
JPL
From the title, I assumed that this was a post about Hastert.
JPL
Rand Paul said that the first amendment gives one the right to say despicable things. I was not aware of that particular definition but I guess it’s true.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
This guy is cleaning up after the elephants, or being cleaned up.
This guy is the fucking Grand Marshal of the Asshole Parade
If whosits who bought the Post from Katharine Graham’s degenerate progeny wants to do the country and the world a service, he’ll shitcan Hiatt and Lane.
kindness
I agree with John. They should
Boots on the ground! Yeay! Honestly it would be putting the folks in the line of fire that should be there instead of innocent GI’s.
scav
@C.V. Danes: Why not a line dance of married gays all singing “Happy Holidays!” holding same, plus ithers as we think of them?
Arm The Homeless
What, their permit for a high pressure pig blood cannon was denied?
These nitwits need better outlets for their angst. Like cave diving, or asbestos removal. Just leave us normal workin folks out of it.
Villago Delenda Est
My understanding is that fucktard boy here is a Great Mesopotamian Adventure vet.
steve
@C.V. Danes: Works for me.
bcinaz
On a recent errand through Mesa AZ (the most conservative town in the USA), I saw this two part light up sign in front of some church:
Sign 1: Religion Unites
Sign 2: Never Divides
They need to add Sign 3: We never leave the building.
kc
@Villago Delenda Est:
With freedom ambassadors like that, I really can’t understand why they hate us.
JPL
@Arm The Homeless: yup
KG
@JPL: most of the Supreme Court law on free speech involves speech that a significant number of people would probably call despicable. Popular speech, as they say, doesn’t need protection.
Rand Careaga
I well remember when Ritzheimer bravely stood up for Andres Serrano’s “Piss Christ” back in the day, and when he spoke out the following year against the fanatics who were protesting Scorcese’s Last Temptation of Christ.
At least…I think I remember. Truth to tell, I was drinking pretty heavily during the latter years of the Alzheimer Administration.
mai naem mobile
I have a friend who doesn’t live that far from here and hes a little concerned. Apparently, they’re going to be doing it in a Dennys parking lot and the Dennys is closing up for the day so these fuckers are hurting the Dennys workers as well. I’m guessing Friday being payday for a lot of people is probably a good tip day at Dennys.Not sure why these fuckers couldn’t do it in a public park. Not sure why Dennys isn’t preemptively keeping them out.
Citizen_X
It’s worth watching Anderson Cooper’s interview with this idiot, available here. The guy’s pretty clearly a moron, flummoxed by the most obvious questions. You can practically hear the gears grinding as he “thinks.”
Good thing he’s heavily armed and picking a fight, right?
Citizen_X
@mai naem mobile: Hastert’s got his own problems, so he’s closing his restaurants. ;-)
beltane
@mai naem mobile: Denny’s must be afraid of being boycotted by the freedumb lovers, so much so that they’re even willing to close on a Friday.
Calouste
@bcinaz: Sign 4: We’ve never read any history books. For example, names for the group the Pilgrims came from: Dissenters, Separatists, Non-Conformists.
Ella in New Mexico
@mai naem mobile:
Seriously! Since it is private property they have every right to tell these assholes to get the fuck out of their parking lot. Why aren’t they?
Berto
Made me think abut ISIS.
If you supported the Iraq War, congratulations. You built that!
p.a.
I’ll be with them in spirit as long as they’re pissing on crucifixes at the same time as they wave around drawings of Muhammad. No reason to be selective about pissing off the god botherers.
Bill
I’ve got mixed feelings about this particular brand of assholes. I’m open to a “Fuck (insert religion of your choice)” message. I own and wear a number of T-shirts that don’t literally saw “Fuck Christianity,” but certainly carry that general message. I have a soft spot for people who use their first amendment rights in “offensive” ways to denounce religions.
That said, I don’t think this bunch of assholes is looking to peacefully exercise their first amendment right. They are looking for a fight. And I’m also particularly open to a “Fuck Violence” message.
So mixed feelings.
Felonius Monk
Somewhat related:
Faux News resident anorexic ghoul, Ann Coulter, has put forth a new immigration plan: No Fat Chicks Allowed. I’m not really sure if this applies to all Fat Chicks of foreign origin or just Islamic Fat Chicks.
beltane
@Felonius Monk: It’s often the case that people become fat after living here a while.
TG Chicago
This guy is an idiot, but this response from Cole is also pretty dumb:
Umm. You don’t have 1st Amendment rights in Rahmadi. Seriously, I know this wasn’t a legit suggestion, but still: it totally misses the point.
I agree with the above folks who have suggested a Piss Christ contest or something.
burnspbesq
@JPL:
That’s not quite correct. What the First and Fourteenth Amendments actually say is that, with very limited exceptions, the Federal and state governments can’t stop you from saying despicable things.
Now, if I, a private citizen, were to somehow get my hands on an AC-130, a full load of ammo, and a competent crew, the First Amendment would have nothing to say about how I deploy it. There may be other relevant laws, but in one sense your right to free speech is limited by your ability to back it up.
jl
@burnspbesq: I think Paul and those like him really mean that they have the right to say things people they do not like find despicable, and no one, public or private has any right to criticize what they say, or interfere with whatever offensive and asinine symbolic speech they choose to engage in.
I would say that they are confusing the Constitutional right of free speech with a special social entitlement and license, but they would say I am engaging in hate speech and ideological genocide (aka ‘going Bernie Sanders’, as the NR crowd might put it)
Frankensteinbeck
I understand that the government should not stop demonstrations, but when you’re holding it right outside a minority religion center, you’re protesting the existence of that religion itself, your protests are undeniable hate speech, and you are armed… how exactly is this different from a cross burning? It’s a threat, not a protest. The intent is to make the people in the mosque afraid. That is not protected by the first amendment. You have no constitutional rights that do not have limits, and those limits usually involve violating someone else’s rights.
EDIT – @jl:
Racism. Three quarters of the passion of the conservative movement is their built up resentment of decades of being told they can’t yell ‘nigger’ and ‘fag’.
mai naem mobile
I don’t know why they’ve picked Denny’s. At one point in my life I used to go to different Dennys a lot and their parking lots aren’t that big. That area has plenty of empty or near empty strip centers which would have worked.better. There’s one big public park and I smaller one close.by, that I know about. Why get the Dennys involved?
beltane
@Frankensteinbeck: Imagine if this same group of people were protesting outside a synagogue holding placards espousing the Blood Libel.
beltane
@mai naem mobile: These people probably aren’t too well endowed in the strategic thinking department.
Bill
@Frankensteinbeck:
Cross burning is constitutionally protected speech. See R.A.V. v. City of St Paul
https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/90-7675.ZS.html
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
I’ve been told that folks like Jon Ritzheimer are “our best and brightest…”
beltane
Will there be a counter-protest? Maybe Arizona doesn’t have enough decent people to fight back against these jackasses?
Visceral
@Calouste:
Just try putting the Pilgrims in with the kind of people who call themselves “nonconformists” today. The Pilgrims came to the New World because the society they were dissenting against and wanted to separate from was too liberal for their taste.
Remember, WE are the Establishment to these people.
Paul in KY
@Bill: You would have liked the set I saw at Hangout Music Fest from Frank Turner & the Sleeping Souls. Brit band from Wessex. Played on main stage in Baldwin County, Alabama. 2nd song was ‘There Aint No God & There Never Was’. (That may not be title, but that was the refrain). Played at high volume, with him asking us to sing the chorus, etc.
You should have been there! I was thinking ‘Man, this guy has balls!’.
Ruckus
@Visceral:
I’d bet that fundraisers were held to help the costs of getting rid of them.
Lavocat
Well said.
I’m eagerly awaiting the forthcoming book “Haiku by John Cole”.
Brevity truly is the soul of wit.
Brachiator
I’m really getting tired of all the political correctness I see continually applied in these blog posts. We need to get tough with religious extremists and deport them. We need to do this for the safety of our country. People need to grow up and face facts.
So, Jon Ritzheimer and his crew need to be rounded up and shipped out. And if they put up a fight, shoot ’em and toss their bodies in a ditch.
jl
@beltane:
” Will there be a counter-protest? Maybe Arizona doesn’t have enough decent people to fight back against these jackasses? ”
From what I read, the leaders of the local Islamic community leaders said the best response is to not engage with this particular gathering of hate and fear mongering doofuses on this particular day over this particular issue (i.e., toting guns in a Denny’s parking lot at an offensive cartoon drawing contest).
Edit: one even was gracious enough to remind people that in this country people have a right to be stupid and offensive.
patrick II
One of the many problems with all war is the attitude the military instills in its soldiers. The fighters they oppose must be seen as “the enemy”, and not people. I am old enough to remember WWII vets who hated “Japs”, Vietnam vets who hated “gooks”, and now Iraq/Afghanistan vets who hate “ragheads”, muslims, etc. And that is somewhat understandable given the fact it is difficult to aim a rifle, put a hole through a person, see his dead body, and think of him as a father, husband, son, or a person just brought into confrontation by forces beyond both of your control. And I am not saying that many soldiers aren’t smart enough or empathetic enough to not generalize their hate towards all Asians or all Muslims.
Many of the most emphatic supporters of the Vietnam war or the Iraq war are veterans who had to kill or at least shoot at other people and who cannot admit to themselves even today that the thing that damaged their lives was an unjust war and bringing death to others who are not just an “enemy” but actual people.
Chris
@Bill:
My thing with that is, while I realize this isn’t Burma or Russia or China (or Israel), the fact is that since 9/11, between the profiling, the public backlash, all the Patriot Act measures, comparing Islam with pretty much any other religious category (and specifically Christianity) doesn’t really work. Even factoring in other religious prejudices, like against Jews or atheists, Jews and atheists aren’t generally treated like a full blown national security emergency waiting to happen.
I consider this the equivalent of a cross burning; it’s legally protected, it should be, but I also have no illusions that what they’re choosing to express is anything but hate speech.
Chris
@beltane:
You know, this has occurred to me more than once. I’ve seen multiple cases in recent years of Muslims forming a ring around Christian or Jewish places of worship and announcing loudly “not in our name” after terrorist attacks. Is that a relatively safe activity – in the West, maybe, but I’ve seen them at it in Egypt, too, during the revolution, when that was a sure invitation to a bomb.
And every time, it makes me wonder, where the hell are the Christians doing the same thing?
If the Muslim leaders have said that they prefer these guys ignored, well, fair enough, but I rarely hear Christians even offer.
Bill
@Chris:
Which is also protected.
Islam is not entitled to any more protection from people saying mean things about it than Christianity is. Which is to say, none. So if these guys were just getting together to draw the prophet, or to publish a cartoon, or to sell t-shirts I wouldn’t really care. In fact, I might support it.
The “bring your gun” aspect of this is the problem.
Chris
@Bill:
… I know it’s protected and Islam is not entitled to more legal protections. Hence “legally protected” and “should be.”
Origuy
@Visceral: Nonconformist is a term used in the British Isles to refer to those who are neither Catholic nor a member of an Established Church (Anglican or Presbyterian). Methodists, Baptists, Quakers are all Nonconformists, as are many very conservative sects such as the Free Church of Scotland.
Craig
@C.V. Danes:
Perhaps someone should submit a cartoon of Jesus shoving a cross up his — to get a good idea of Christian colors when it comes to free speech.
Something similar was done long ago. Here is a link to a New York Times page with an image of a statue of Christ in a container of urine. Don’t recall hearing about Christians attacking the artist using AK47s.
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/arts/art-shock.html
lurker dean
@Bill: this thread is probably dead, but i’m not reading that case as saying it’s protected, just that the statute at issue was unconstitutional. in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_v._Black the Supreme Court indicated that burning a cross with intent to intimidate can be made illegal, if the statute is properly limited in scope. so a statute can theoretically be written to ban burning a cross on a black family’s lawn because it’s intended to intimidate, but probably can’t ban burning a cross at a rally where it’s just a generalized hate being espoused.
anyway, at first blush it seems like having the drawing contest at an islamic community center is certainly intended to intimidate, not merely first amendment expression. but i’m guessing there’s no properly tailored statute against it in AZ.
Chris
@lurker dean:
I think this is the same as these WBC guys picketing funerals, in that it’s not intended as a threat, just as something over-the-top offensive enough to provoke a reaction.
jonas
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Oh sweet Jesus, I will go in with other BJ-ers in the area on a bottle of Dom if that day ever comes.
jonas
You know if the shoe was on the other foot, and someone was desecrating a beloved Christian symbol, these people would be first in line defending the provocateur’s First Amendment rights and….oh wait.
jonas
@patrick II: And then that vile “Sniper” movie came out last year that basically said, “Fuck yeah, that way of thinking is TEH AWESOME!!!1!”
Chris
@jonas:
I think American Sniper is the Rambo of our generation, or wants to be. First major movie to try hard to rewrite the public memory of the Iraq War, mythologizing it and justifying it with a narrative that focuses exclusively on the vet/soldier who believes hard in everything he’s doing, while blissfully ignoring all the questions of WHY the fucking war was fought and what good came of it.
lurker dean
@Chris: i can see that argument, though i guess the counterargument would be that draw mohammed contests have acquired a similar status to cross burning, and aren’t merely over-the-top displays. which may be a stretch, although if the group shows up en masse open carrying with intimidating signs, things start shifting. anyway, i wasn’t familiar with the flag burning cases, it was interesting reading up on them.
Bill
@lurker dean: The statute banned cross burning among other forms of offensive speech. The Court held that such a ban is unconstitutional. In other words, the speech is protected.
Yes, prosecution for intimidation is permissible, which is where the “bring your guns” aspect of this story comes in. But merely holding a cartoon drawing contest in a Denny’s parking lot would not likely rise to the level of intimidation.