*A Lesson on Free Speech and Sharia in Knoxville**---*Leftist Jewish Groups Want Synagogue To Cancel Speech by Pamela Geller [image: Scrapped?: Conservative blogger Pamela Geller, left, protests the cancellation of a planned speech at the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles last year. Leftist activists want a Long Island synagogue to cancel her appearance there this month.]
*Scrapped?*: Conservative blogger Pamela Geller, left, protests the cancellation of a planned speech at the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles last year. Leftist activists want a Long Island synagogue to cancel her appearance there this month. By Josh Nathan-Kazis <http://forward.com/authors/josh-nathan-kazis/> Leftist Jewish groups are calling on a Long Island synagogue to cancel a speech by an outspoken Jewish blogger known for her outspoken anti-Muslim views — raising questions about a double standard on free expression. New York activist groups Jewish Voice for Peace, Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, and Jews Say No! announced their opposition to a speech set for April 14 by Pamela Geller, an activist known for her extreme anti-Muslim rhetoric, at the Modern Orthodox Great Neck Synagogue. In an email sent to JVP activists on April 3, the organization called on members to contact the Great Neck Synagogue and ask it to cancel the event. Rebecca Vilkomerson, JVP’s executive director, told the Forward on April 4 that at least 50 people had contacted Great Neck Synagogue at the group’s behest. “Our hope is that the synagogue will cancel her appearance,” Vilkomerson said. “The kind of venom that she spews against Islam is completely inappropriate for a synagogue.” Geller, in response to the campaign against her event, criticized the leftist groups as insufficiently Jewish. “Jewish history is plagued with these quislings, who are willing tools serving as the public face for supremacists and annihilationists,” she wrote in an email to the Forward. “The left uses these Jews to defame and destroy a Jew who is truly standing up for Israel and for the principles of freedom and human rights that the Jewish State represents. It’s inexcusable.” The campaign comes weeks after some of the same leftist Jewish groups organized against efforts to cancel a panel on the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement at Brooklyn College. One of the groups also opposed a decision by the LGBT Community Center in New York to block an appearance by a pro-BDS scholar. One gay community activist, who opposed the BDS ban at the LGBT Community Center, slammed the leftist Jewish groups for their apparent free expression flip-flop. “I’m startled [the leftist Jewish groups] didn’t learn any lessons from the controversies of two months ago at the Gay Center and at Brooklyn College,” said Bill Dobbs, a longtime gay activist. “They’ve lost the moral high ground.” Vilkomerson said that JVP’s call for the cancellation of the event was not evidence of a double standard. “We’re not the ACLU,” Vilkomerson said. “Our job is not to be absolute civil libertarians. We do believe in free speech, but we also believe there are limits to that… Our mission statement says we will always take a strong stand against racism and bigotry in all of its forms, and that’s part of this.” JVP was a co-sponsor of a February 7 panel at Brooklyn College on the BDS movement featuring U.C. Berkeley professor Judith Butler and Palestinian activist Omar Barghouti. The event drew condemnation, including from some elected officials. <http://forward.com/articles/170409/brooklyn-college-blasted-for-sponsoring-boycott-is/> One group of legislators went so far as to threaten the funding of Brooklyn College, a publicly-funded institution. All three of the sponsors of the campaign against Geller’s Great Neck Synagogue speech made statements in defense of the Brooklyn College event. “A group of City Council members has even threatened to cut college funding if the event is not cancelled, or the political science department does not withdraw its sponsorship. This abuse of power evokes the purges and repressions of the McCarthy era,” wrote JFREJ, one of the three activist groups, in a February statement <http://www.jfrej.org/2013-02-06/embracing-debate>. “We as JFREJ position ourselves as watchdogs for justice here in New York City and we feel mandated to speak out against this attempt to silence political viewpoints.” Speaking on April 4, JFREJ executive director Marjorie Dove Kent said that the elected officials’ effort to block the Brooklyn College event was different than the activist groups’ efforts to block Geller’s speech. “Free speech is a first amendment right. So it’s a right that only the government can violate,” Dove Kent said. “It’s one thing to open one’s synagogue for a dialogue reflecting different political viewpoints, it’s another to invite in someone who spews racist hatred.” A local news website in Great Neck reported <http://greatneck.patch.com/articles/geller> that one local official had asked a local interfaith organization to oppose Geller’s talk. Dove-Kent said that her organization had not determined whether or not to cooperate with that effort. JVP, for its part, was actively critical of the LGBT Center’s decision to bar a talk by Sarah Schulman, a College of Staten Island professor who backs the BDS movement. The LGBT Center later reversed <http://forward.com/articles/171503/gays-debate-pinkwashing-as-ny-center-reverses-ban/> its decision. Members of JVP and Jews Say No! were also involved in a recent dispute <http://forward.com/articles/172879/controversial-panel-on-israel-moved-from-ansche-ch/> over a panel indirectly about the BDS movement that was retroactively canceled by the rabbi of the synagogue where it was supposed to take place. The event was eventually rescheduled, and is set to take place at a different synagogue this week. Read more: http://forward.com/articles/174306/leftist-jewish-groups-want-synagogue-to-cancel-spe/?p=all#ixzz3I7DlzMu7 On Tuesday, November 4, 2014 6:28:37 AM UTC-6, Travis wrote: > > > > > > > > > *A Lesson on Free Speech and Sharia in Knoxville* > > Posted By *Andrew Harrod* On November 3, 2014 > > A recent legal victory by Freedom X <http://freedomxlaw.com/> 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 <http://freedomxlaw.com/board-of-directors-2/> > 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 > <http://www.actforamerica.org/> began the case by arranging an April 24 > evening town hall at Farragut High School > <http://www.knoxschools.org/farraguths> (FHS). The event featured Dr. Bill > French <http://www.cspipublishing.com/>, Center for the Study of > Political Islam founder under the pen name Warner, and Matt Bonner > <http://vimeo.com/93287215>, regional director of the Crescent Project > <https://www.crescentproject.org/>, a Christian evangelization ministry > for Muslims. They intended to address the encroachment in America of > sharia, vaguely described in one online report > <http://www.al.com/living/index.ssf/2014/04/anti-islam_event_cancelled.html> > 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 > <http://tntoday.utk.edu/2013/03/12/muslim-youth-minister-unique-position/>, > a Muslim chaplain at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, emailed then > FHS principal Mike F. Reynolds > <http://elps.utk.edu/ed_admin/Reflective%20Essays%20-%20Field%20Award/Reflective%20Essay%20-%202001%20Michael%20Reynolds.pdf> > > on April 8 requesting the event’s cancellation. The town hall flyer had > “kind of an aggressive tone,” Murphy argued to reporters > <http://www.wate.com/story/25220254/upcoming-event-at-high-school-as-some-muslims-on-edge>. > > “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 <http://www.cair.com/> (CAIR), > a radical <http://www.investigativeproject.org/profile/172> faux civil > rights group and an unindicted terrorism financing coconspirator > <http://www.investigativeproject.org/1854/doj-cairs-unindicted-co-conspirator-status-legit>, > > also objected. An April 11 CAIR news release > <https://www.cair.com/press-center/press-releases/12446-cair-welcomes-cancellation-of-anti-muslim-event-in-tenn-school.html> > > publicized a letter by CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim > Hooper > <http://www.cair.com/about-us/cair-national-board-and-key-staff/ibrahim-hooper-communications-director.html> > > 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. > <http://kcs.farragutis.schoolfusion.us/modules/cms/pages.phtml?pageid=47850&SID&printable=TRUE&SID&portrait_or_landscape=portrait> > > 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 > <http://acotn.org/about-us/staffboard/> from the Tennessee-based Muslim > organization, American Center for Outreach. > > The Knoxville ACT! chapter’s president John Peach held the event in a > church <http://freedomxlaw.com/fx-sues-tn-school-district/>, 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 > <http://www.meforum.org/603/islamisms-campus-club-the-muslim-students>, > 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* > <http://www.oyez.org/cases/1960-1969/1968/1968_21> 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 > <http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/06/16/Council-on-American-Islamic-Relations-Seeks-to-Undermine-the-Land-of-the-Free> > > 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* > <http://www.legal-project.org/>*, an activity of the **Middle East Forum* > <http://www.meforum.org/>*.* > > *Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: **Click here* > <http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=david+horowitz&rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&qid=1316459840&rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&sort=daterank>*. > > * > > *Subscribe* > <http://horowitzfreedomcenter.us1.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=caa6f67f1482e6214d83be62d&id=c761755bdf>* > > to Frontpage’s TV show, The Glazov Gang, and **LIKE* > <https://www.facebook.com/glazovgang>* it on **Facebook.* > <https://www.facebook.com/glazovgang> > ------------------------------ > > Article printed from FrontPage Magazine: *http://www.frontpagemag.com > <http://www.frontpagemag.com>* > > URL to article: > *http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/andrew-harrod/a-lesson-on-free-speech-and-sharia-in-knoxville/ > > <http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/andrew-harrod/a-lesson-on-free-speech-and-sharia-in-knoxville/>* > > > > > __._,_.___ > ------------------------------ > Posted by: "beowulf" <[email protected] <javascript:>> > ------------------------------ > > > Visit Your Group > <https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/grendelreport/info;_ylc=X3oDMTJmcWYyYjU2BF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzIwMTk0ODA2BGdycHNwSWQDMTcwNTMyMzY2NwRzZWMDdnRsBHNsawN2Z2hwBHN0aW1lAzE0MTUwNjA5ODc-> > > > - New Members > > <https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/grendelreport/members/all;_ylc=X3oDMTJnbGFydWd2BF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzIwMTk0ODA2BGdycHNwSWQDMTcwNTMyMzY2NwRzZWMDdnRsBHNsawN2bWJycwRzdGltZQMxNDE1MDYwOTg3> > > 1 > > [image: Yahoo! 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