Bosch Fawstin, winner of the "Draw the Prophet" contest in Garland, Texas, says the shooting deaths of two attackers outside the building where the contest took place Sunday shows why Americans must continue to stand for free speech.
"I never set out to draw Muhammad. I never set out to become a critic of Islam until post-9/11, until the Danish cartoons. That's when we were all forced into this defense of free speech," Fawstin said Monday on
Fox News Channel's "On the Record with Greta Van Susteren."
"We have to defend it as artists, as writers, as thinkers
," he said.
Defenders of free speech must hit back not with violence but with the truth, he said.
"With our art, with our writing ... we can't be cowed by this, because once free speech goes, it's over."
Fawstin said he attended the event knowing the danger involved, but said he has been vocal on the issue for a long time. He has a
blog of cartoons that includes drawings of Islam's founder. Visual depictions of Muhammad are considered sacrilegious by many Muslims, leading to killings of cartoonists, including the Charlie Hebdo magazine attack in Paris earlier this year.
"I understand the threat that we face. That's why I do what I do," Fawstin said. "I don't refuse to do it because of the threat. I do it because we are being threatened. It has to be fought head-on."
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