A Lesson on Free Speech and Sharia in Knoxville

lkA recent legal victory by Freedom X upheld the right of private citizens to discuss openly sharia law at a Knoxville, Tennessee, high school. “This is a victory for free speech,” Freedom X’s President William J. Becker rightly explained, in yet another instructive example of Islamists seeking to subvert the United States Constitution’s First Amendment.

A local Knoxville chapter of ACT! for America began the case by arranging an April 24 evening town hall at Farragut High School (FHS). The event featured Dr. Bill French, Center for the Study of Political Islam founder under the pen name Warner, and Matt Bonner, regional director of the Crescent Project, a Christian evangelization ministry for Muslims. They intended to address the encroachment in America of sharia, vaguely described in one online report as “Islamic laws governing worship and lifestyle.” Becker correctly clarifies that “Sharia is incompatible with our constitutional and legal protections” in numerous ways.

Both local and national Muslims groups, however, greeted the event with harsh opposition. Abdel Rahman Murphy, a Muslim chaplain at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, emailed then FHS principal Mike F. Reynolds on April 8 requesting the event’s cancellation. The town hall flyer had “kind of an aggressive tone,” Murphy argued to reporters. “Feel free hosting” the event “anywhere else by renting out a banquet hall,” Murphy added, “but to host it at a public place…is not comfortable for the rest of us.”

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a radical faux civil rights group and an unindicted terrorism financing coconspirator, also objected. An April 11 CAIR news release publicized a letter by CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper to FHS the previous day that “vilifies…French, Bonner and ACT! for America” with a “false attribution” of “anti-Muslim hate” refuted by Becker’s complaint. “We support the First Amendment right to free speech—even…hate speech used by these speakers,” Hooper argued. The “need for a safe and inclusive learning environment,” though, makes a “school…not the proper setting.”

Principal Reynolds’ April 10 letter to Knox County Schools Superintendent James P. McIntyre, Jr. shared Hooper’s sentiments. “Groups promoting hate rather than tolerance” would have the event “serve as a public forum for harassment and bullying practices that contradict the open-minded, academic discussion we seek to…foster at” FHS, Murphy wrote. The event would generate “little positive press or educational benefit,” yet “polarize our community” when “deemed ours by association.” Concerns of “potential backlash” and “future security threats” from “retaliation of opposing groups” existed. These “expressed concerns…about…disruption” from an event unsuitable for “a safe, healthy and comfortable learning environment” caused McIntyre to rescind ACT!’s invitation in an April 11 letter to its Knoxville chapter leaders.

A Knoxville school official was “happy to announce” ACT!’s uninviting. Hooper boasted of the school’s decision, arguing that “this event in a public school would send an implicit message of endorsement for the bigoted views of the speakers.” Knoxville schools must “remain a safe place for all students,” concurred Remziya Suleyman from the Tennessee-based Muslim organization, American Center for Outreach.

The Knoxville ACT! chapter’s president John Peach held the event in a church, not seeking other public venues for fear of another cancellation. “Sharia is not well-understood and we wanted to inform the public” as “concerned Americans,” Peach said. An “American…should” not “be afraid to speak out on public matters in a public forum.”

Peach noted that Muslim groups such as the Saudi-backed Muslim Students Association, meanwhile, could openly operate unopposed at the University of Tennessee Knoxville campus. “If it’s right for Muslims to host events in tax-funded public facilities, then what is wrong with a group of citizens wanting the same,” he asked. “This is a great example of what Sharia Law is doing to America.”

On August 4th, Peach and French with Becker as counsel sued the school district for violating his First Amendment constitutionally protected rights. “It is unfortunate we have to educate the educators,” Becker stated in filing the lawsuit to coincide with the school year opening, but the First Amendment’s “freedom of speech…distinguishes America from Muslim nations.” “CAIR and other terror-affiliated groups are exploiting our laws,” Becker analyzed, “to erode…freedom of speech…part and parcel of a greater plan” for an “Islamic caliphate.” “Unfortunately…as Muslim activists play the victim card,” this trend will grow, even though blasphemy laws are unconstitutional.

Because “litigation would have been futile,” Becker rejoiced, the school’s attorneys settled just 21 days after his filing. An “undifferentiated fear or apprehension of disturbance is not enough to overcome” the “hazardous freedom” that “is the basis of our national strength,” the 1969 United States Supreme Court Tinker v. Des Moines School District decision cited by Becker held. In addition to paying plaintiff attorney fees and costs, a new school district policy states that “[a]pproval for use of school buildings and property will not be withheld based upon the content of the message or viewpoint of the applicant.”

As with a prior June 2014 Chicago CAIR lead protest involving another instance of ACT! using public facilities for an anti-Sharia program, America’s First Amendment protections have stopped those who would inhibit open discussion of Islam. Vague “hate” or “disruption” claims have not silenced indirectly in America speech censored directly in majority-Muslim countries or “multicultural” sensitive Europe. The Knoxville case, a precedent that will not remained unnoticed, has shown groups like CAIR that Americans will not hesitate to defend free speech under assault even in the land of the free.

This article was commissioned by The Legal Project, an activity of the Middle East Forum.

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  • JDsHandsomeSon

    So I guess we can expect a retaliatory beheading somewhere in America soon, another isolated unrelated incident of a possible man made disaster unconnected with a religion of peace.

    • Sheik Yerbouti

      They fail to see that they create their own stereotypes in the US. And a stereotype can take on a life of it’s own. I should know, I’m a rich white republican. Well, I’m republican and white anyway, but 2 out of 3 is enough for the leftist hate trifecta.

      Leftist hatred is the only reason we have allowed another, independent legal system to exist under our national charter. A strong right knows what’s right. No “debate” is needed.

      It’s clear to me at least that this group is USING American altruism and reason as a means to slip in and attempt to take over from within. This is because they assume the government here is a model of the people here.

      When was the last time Americans felt like their government was really trying to stand up for Americans?

      • mezcukor

        Vey well said Sheik Yerbouti.

      • hrwolfe

        I’d say roughly 6 years ago, well said Yerbouti!

        • PhillipGaley

          I’d say, about 1960.

        • Stephen Powell

          Eisenhower was the last president we had that was not a total POS. If we had an Eisenhower in office in 2000, the Iraq/Afghanistan wars would have lasted about 6 months and there would be no self-declared ‘Islamic States’ anywhere.

      • Joel Cairo

        If you are a white republican than you must be rich. It is unavoidable. Ask any leftist and they will tell you that it cannot be otherwise. perhaps you would be willing to contribute to my acquisition of the Maltese Falcon? All that wealth should not go to waste.

  • FedUpWithWelfareStates

    Excellent article & another example of how we, here in Tennessee, will not be intimidated by Islam, while Muslims practicing Taqiyya attempt to use our own constitution & laws against us with the full cooperation of Dhimmis seeking favor with their future masters by enabling the implementation of Sharia…or so they think. It is a sad day in America when Americans choose to align their selves with foreigners & a so-called religion (really no more than a political agenda), which calls for the destruction of our country, the enslavement of our women, & the beheading of all of us Infidels, who would be non-compliant to Islam’s Satanic cult of evil. Shame on you, who still call yourselves Americans, but bow down to a pedophile masquerading as a False God! We will not be threatened in our own country. we will not bow down to a cult of evilness. We will be prepared to defend our constitution & our country…“Molon labe!”

    • abey

      You’re not able to defend your constitution, people & country until kick off your Muslim president out from the white house with his Muslim advisers

  • http://www.amazon.com/Kill-Media-Martial-Conspiracy-ebook/dp/B009063F5W/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1345573494&sr=1-2 jeffreyafriedberg

    These sharia b*stards need to go back to where they already have it.

  • nimbii

    Finally…

  • Jack Schitt

    Hamas Terrorist Supporter Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) needs to be deported ASAP back to their fellow scumbags

    • MarilynA

      We need an Asset Forfeiture law which would allow the government to seize the assets of tax exempt organizations which break our laws, or who’s officials break our laws in it’s name, or while carrying out it’s mandates. The proceeds should go toward paying down our national debt. If it is good enough for US citizens it should apply equally to tax exempt organizations. Just think how far the assets of George Soros’ organizations would go toward reducing the debt.

      • ebonystone

        The RICO laws already allow asset seizure. If we had a DoJ worth its salt, these laws would have been applied to the various enterprises of the Moslem conquest years ago.

        • Agent153Orange

          If we had a President worth his salt, CAIR and all their affiliates would all have been put on DEATH ROW by now pursuant to the Authorization for Use of Military Force!

  • livingengine

    Thank you, Mr Harrod.

  • Doc Robby

    A well written article. Thank you.

  • Space Cowboy

    “This is a victory for free speech,” Freedom X’s President William J. Becker rightly explained, in yet another instructive example of Islamists seeking to subvert the United States Constitution’s First Amendment.

    I’m sorry to say that those Muslims aren’t Islamists, i.e., radicals, extremists, fundamentalists, and terrorists. Why? Because ALL MUSLIMS IN THE WORLD are jihadists in one form or another according to the dictates of Islam. Thus, like all Muslims throughout the world, those Muslims are actually mainstream orthodox Muslims.

    The notion that a tiny minority of Muslims are Islamists, fundamentalists, radicals, extremists, and terrorists, while the vast overwhelming majority of Muslims, on the other hand, are peaceful and moderate Muslims, is a very false and very fantasy based narrative. Indeed, when GWB proclaimed that idiocy shortly after America was the victim of the greatest violent jihad attack ever in history, he was replacing common sense with political correctness.

    The reality, however, is ALL MUSLIMS IN THE WORLD are jihadists in one form or another. Since waging jihad, which is a so-called holy war waged by ALL MUSLIMS IN THE WORLD against ALL INFIDELS IN THE WORLD to ultimately make Islam and its followers supreme throughout the world, is a fundamental holy obligation COMPULSORY for ALL MUSLIMS IN THE WORLD in one form or another.

    Furthermore, because more than anything else, Islam is a very rabid and draconian form of totalitarianism that seeks to make itself and its followers supreme, more than it is just a so-called religion, all non-conformers in Islamic totalitarian society are summarily executed for the capital offenses of apostasy, blasphemy, or both according to the dictates of Islam.

    As a matter of fact, it’s not like Muslims have the individual freedom of conscience to choose to adhere to Islam or to apostatize or to choose to adhere to the tenets of Islam or to commit blasphemy. As apostasy and blasphemy in Islamic totalitarian society are both capital offenses. Indeed, the tenets of Islam must always be very strictly enforced. Otherwise it would quickly fall apart.

  • Space Cowboy

    They intended to address the encroachment in America of sharia, vaguely described in one online report as “Islamic laws governing worship and lifestyle.”

    Sharia is draconian Islamic totalitarian law. As a matter of fact, the first and foremost prerequisite of Islam is the total, complete, and unconditional “submission” of all Muslims to the “will of Allah”, which in essence is draconian Islamic totalitarian law or Sharia, under the penalties of death for apostasy and death for blasphemy.

    Indeed, the word “Islam” in Arabic means “to submit” and the word “Muslim” in Arabic means “one who submits.”

    Therefore, the only way to stop Sharia and the associated Islamization of America, not to mention Jihad as well, is to ban and reverse mass Muslim immigration with all of its excess baggage ASAP. As each time a Muslim is imported into America, at the same time more and more Sharia and more and more Jihad is also imported into America.

    In addition, just like legislation can’t stop Jihad, legislation also can’t stop Sharia as well.

    Of course, Jihad, which is not the same thing as terrorism, is waged in America by stealth and deception deliberately non-violently by design on purpose since waging Jihad violently in America isn’t feasible because it would be quickly defeated.

    Indeed, its Islam’s version of the Cold War. Only this time around, our political elites on both sides of the political aisles are asleep at the wheel blinded by PC multiculturalism.

  • Space Cowboy

    Both local and national Muslims groups, however, greeted the event with harsh opposition.

    Not because those local and national groups are comprised of Islamists, i.e., radicals, extremists, fundamentalists, and terrorists, but instead are comprised of mainstream orthodox Muslims that via their various groups at both the local and national levels all together cumulatively represents all mainstream orthodox Muslims throughout America.

    As again ALL MUSLIMS IN THE WORLD are jihadists in one form or another according to the dictates of Islam, including all the Muslim migrants living here in America today.

    Indeed, mass Muslim immigration with all of its excess baggage, in essence is slow suicide by stupidity. Because it is stealth jihad waged deliberately non-violently by design on purpose for the strategic purposes of mass Muslim infiltration of our government, eventual Islamization of our society, and for eventual demographic conquest.

    In fact, since ALL MUSLIMS IN THE WORLD are jihadists in one form or another, then the notion that the vast majority of Muslims are so-called moderate Muslims is ludicrous. Yet, that is exactly what most Americans have been misled to believe via our political elites and our elitist media.

  • Capt Bob

    But can they talk about Christians and the American Flag.

  • Space Cowboy

    The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a radical faux civil rights group and an unindicted terrorism financing coconspirator,

    That’s ludicrous. Since all Muslims in the world are jihadists in one form or another, either of the violent variety (a tiny minority) or of the non-violent variety (the vast overwhelming majority) according to the dictates of Islam, then it is not only absurd but also very false to misrepresent the Council on American-Islamic Relations as being a radical faux civil rights group. As they actually represent the civil rights of all mainstream orthodox Muslims in America.

    Don’t forget that all mainstream orthodox Muslims in America, as opposed to all so-called moderate Muslims and as opposed to all so-called radical Muslims, which don’t actually exist in reality, are all jihadists in one form or another according to the dictates of mainstream orthodox Islam, which also happens to be the only kind.

    It’s only the fantasy-based notion that the vast overwhelming majority of Muslims in the world are somehow peaceful and moderate people, with the only exception being the tiny minority of Muslims that are radicals, i.e., extremists, fundamentalists, Islamists, and terrorists, that leads those blinded by political correctness, like the writer of this article here, for instance, to misrepresent what are actually mainstream orthodox Muslims as somehow being radical as opposed to the non-existent and only imaginary so-called moderate Muslims that are alleged to comprise the vast overwhelming majority of Muslims in the world.

    Indeed, if that’s the case, i.e., that the vast overwhelming majority of Muslims in the world are so-called moderate Muslims, then I have to ask the writer of this article to please point to all the moderate Islamic totalitarian states in the Islamic totalitarian world today where infidels, i.e., non-Muslims, living under Islamic totalitarian rule, aren’t persecuted or harshly oppressed when not actually slaughtered outright per the dictates of Islam. Good luck! I promise I won’t hold my breath.

  • Space Cowboy

    “CAIR and other terror-affiliated groups are exploiting our laws,” Becker analyzed,

    Sorry Becker, but CAIR and other so-called terror-affiliated groups, do not support terror, because terrorism is a phenomenon solely unique to infidel society alone.

    Instead, they not only support Jihad, which is a so-called holy war waged by ALL MUSLIMS IN THE WORLD against ALL INFIDELS IN THE WORLD to ultimately make Islam and its followers supreme throughout the world, but they are all also jihadists themselves in one form or another as well.

  • Space Cowboy

    “to erode…freedom of speech…part and parcel of a greater plan” for an “Islamic caliphate.”

    Sorry, but the Caliphate is just an intermediary goal. As the sole fundamental purpose of mainstream orthodox Islam, which also happens to be the only kind, is to convert or kill all infidels in the world through Jihad, which is a so-called holy war, and through the eventual imposition of Sharia, which is draconian Islamic totalitarian law, to ultimately make Islam and its followers supreme throughout the world.

  • Fed Up

    ‘”Hooper argued. The “need for a safe and inclusive learning environment,”’ …”Concerns of “potential backlash” and “future security threats” from “retaliation of opposing groups” existed. (McIntyre)”

    Hmmmm, dost I detect the stench of threats? What exactly did Hooper say to McIntyre? And of course, the good educator, in his pc-stupor and pusillanimity cannot see that if you have to worry about violent backlash maybe the critics have a point about the excited mobs of backlashers. And notice, he had no worries the Christians would unsheathe their swords in vengeance did he? it always easier and SAFE to hate one’s own in the modern west and can be quite rewarding.

    Liberals like McIntyre have hated their own for so long and so reflexively they now find themselves standing with those who are the murderous antithesis of everything every liberal ever said he believed in. But they have that hatred in common with the weird-beards and think that by showing solidarity it keeps them safe.

    This is just another example that the effete, faux radicals of western liberalism will not be there for you or even their various mascots as the darkening night of sharia approaches. They will be cowering and pleading tolerance but it will avail them not. Because for now the smooth, urbane taquiya-talking Hooper and the more zealous brethren he covers for are happy to be friendly while our useful idiots are helping the jihad against their own. But it’s precisely all those pc-obsessions and bugaboos of the McIntyres and “educators” the weird-beards cite as our gravest transgressions for which there is no mercy or reprieve. And it’s why I say, “Hey Lib, they’ll cut your throat first.” when their service as useful idiot is done.

    • Ann Chase

      CAIR probably WILL retaliate if thwarted in their jihad. But as Americans, we have to decide whether to submit to Islam, or preserve, protect and defend our Constitution. No one ever promised that maintaining liberty would be easy or painless.

  • Jeff Ludwig

    A most excellent conclusion to this case!! However, do not think these Sharia-ites will be deterred. It is an aggressive mindset seeking to overthrow Judeo-Christian values as central tenets of our culture.

  • knowitall

    Vote Conservative/Republican today and save your country.

  • Space Cowboy

    I wandered why you changed you’re naim from Obama Yho Mama, to this Spaice Cow Boy. Not that it matter’s, your xclusive 100% extreme statements are more useful than not because they show the end-point which if not always existing are the real possibility of happening befoar we notice. (I could be right if not.)

    Actually, I changed my moniker because I also post on non-political boards as well. Thus, the name I was using to post on political boards was not suitable across various boards. Meanwhile, Obamayomoma was also never meant to be a permanent moniker in any event, as initially it was intended as a joke that I somehow neglected to change for way too long.

    Anyway, you obviously are not an American. I’m guessing you are a delusional Euroloon. Thus, if my guess is correct and you are a delusional Euroloon as I surmise, then it also explains why you perceive my truthful posts as being extreme. Indeed, it’s because you have been deliberately brainwashed by your EU government for your entire life via your public school systems and your news Medias. Thus, your perception of the world has become exceedingly warped because of it.

    You see in 1973, the Euro-Arab Dialogue agreement between the old ECC, the precursor to the EU, and the Islamic totalitarian world was signed. In exchange for free flowing oil from the Islamic totalitarian world, the ECC sold its soul and agreed at the same time to accept a flood of Muslim immigrants (that are really stealth jihadists) into their countries, to change their public education systems to teach Muslim propaganda, to control their medias to become anti-Israel, to dump Israel under the bus, and to help the Islamic totalitarian world to turn America against Israel.

    All of this was fallout from the 1973 Yom Kippur War and the accompanying Muslim oil embargo. In other words, the previous leaders of the ECC were feckless appeasers.

    Hence, since you have been brainwashed your entire life, of course, you view the truth as somehow being extreme. I would too had I also been the victim of the same kind of brainwashing you were subjected to. Thus, it really sucks to be you. Especially with a perception of the world so warped and screwed up as your unhinged perception is.

    • Tish

      Well said SC…Your statements are 100% True !

  • DH Andy Andrew

    Strange that we did not hear any mention of this at UT’s recent Siddiqi lecture on the ‘Convergence of Sharia and US Constitution”

  • Stephen Powell

    Any resistance to the Muslim agenda in the West is ‘Hate’. Don’t you love Orwellian newspeak.

  • Tish

    Bravo !! Bravo !! Thank You for standing up and protecting America’s right to free speech …Let’s show Europe how it’s done !