An organizer of a contest in Texas that offered cash for the best cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad tells
Newsmax TV that in light of the bloodshed there on Sunday he will hold similar events in defense of free speech against extremists who would use violence to silence critics of Islam.
"We plan to have many more now as a result of this," Robert Spencer told "MidPoint" host Ed Berliner on Monday, invoking the famous line attributed to Patrick Henry — "Give me liberty or give me death" — to explain his actions.
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Spencer also clashed on air with a Muslim rights activist, Nezar Hamze, regional operations director for CAIR Florida, an affiliate of the Washington, D.C.-based Council on American Islamic Relations.
Hamze said Spencer was "creating hate" with events like Sunday's provocative "Draw Muhammad" contest and deliberately trying to isolate Muslims from mainstream American society while "making a pretty good buck" in the process.
Hamze said "the only winners" in the fight being picked by Spencer are the extremists on both sides.
"The loser is everybody else in society," he said, "everyone else that's trying to live peacefully and trying to be productive, and that's the reality."
Spencer called the accusation of profit a "calumny" by a "Hamas-linked CAIR representative." He said his organization spent $30,000 on security for the cartoon contest and exhibition.
"We are losing money on this event," he said. "Nobody is making a buck here."
"Draw Muhammad" was
attended by about 200 people and cut short by violence that recalled the massacre in January at the offices of Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris.
Police in Garland, Texas shot and killed two gunmen on Sunday after they pulled up in a vehicle and opened fire outside the building in an apparent attempt to storm the event, authorities said. A security guard wounded in the leg in the attack is expected to recover, authorities said.
Reports identified one of the slain gunman as Elton Simpson, a Phoenix, Arizona, resident
who had been previously investigated by the FBI for jihadist ties.
"I'm very sorry that the policeman was shot and I'm very glad that he does not have life-threatening injuries," said Spencer.
He continued, "I'm very glad that we had the contest, and the incident itself shows how crucial this event was … because it shows that there is a concerted effort to force Americans into silence and submission to Sharia blasphemy laws. There is a concerted effort to intimidate Americans into silence and to be afraid to utter the slightest criticism of Islam."
Many Muslims — though not all — consider any depiction of Muhammad, flattering or not, to be blasphemous because of a Koran passage that says there is "nothing like a likeness of Him."
The event on Sunday promised $10,000 to the winning illustrator, and was organized jointly by Spencer, the director of Jihad Watch and a co-founder of the American Freedom Defense Initiative with conservative blogger Pamela Geller.
The gathering also featured a speech by a
controversial Dutch politician, Geert Wilders, who wants Muslims expelled from his country.
Critics have accused Spencer and Geller of whipping up anti-Muslim hysteria before. Geller was a leading critic of the proposal to build a mosque near the site of the 9-11 World Trade Center attacks.
With a prominent U.S. conservative, Donald Trump,
now accusing the Texas event organizers of "taunting" Muslims, Spencer rejected any suggestion that he incited Sunday's violence.
"You're talking to me after somebody tried to commit mass murder at an event I was holding, and you're saying I'm inciting to violence?" he said.
Spencer did not offer a timetable for future contests or exhibitions but said he won't stop putting them on.
"If we submit to violent intimidation, we're only going to get more violent intimidation," he said. "We have to stand up at a certain point or the violent intimidation is only going to continue."
Hamze said Spencer has a First Amendment right to express his opinions and organize events calling attention to violent extremism.
"But let's use our head and let's come up with a more productive way," said Hamze, "because their reasoning, and the way they are approaching this, is absolutely not working. The only thing that it's doing is dividing the American Muslim community from the rest of the American society in creating hate."
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