Mohammad cartoon contest in front of a Phoenix Mosque. What are your thoughts?

I think that with a world full of "characters" that Mohammed was an odd choice as they knew it would be controversial. So, to hold the event right in front of a Mosque they were courting disaster. They had to know.....

My thoughts are they are allowed to exercise free speech.
I think it is dumb to target a random Mosque.
Draw Mohammed, post it online, send it to the ISIS Twitter page. Target the people actually using violence. Instead of the people in your community who are probably on your side.

Now that the protests have concluded peacefully, I think this was really instructive.

I'm not a lawyer, I just read and enjoy the advice of a Constitutional legal scholar I'm happy to call a good friend. In real life I'm a citizen soldier and an IT manager, so please take anything I say as a layman's understanding.

The Supreme Court has set a very high bar for truncating our legal rights with very good reason. In spite of the viscerally emotional response some had to the presence of an armed crowd, they were exercising a trifecta of hard-won liberties in a way that ultimately turned out to be disquieting, yes, but in the end, peaceful.

People talked about "armed posses," "vigilantism," the "potential for harm," when in fact, the only legal standard that applied was a direct call for imminent violence. Surely the protesters said hateful, evil things, but that's not a direct call for violence. Someone even went so far as to call someone an irrational bigot for drawing comparisons with the challenges other religious majorities and minorities face.

None of that is or will be relevant. We have laws for a reason. I don't take any glee in "I told you so," but to have shut these protests down, we would be imposing a new legal standard that could easily be applied to the next thing we have a strong emotional response to. I'm glad for SCOTUS' difficult standard for "incitement," especially after this. Consider what kind of position the ignoramuses protesting this would have today had we taken the easy path and surrendered to emotion and precipitously shut it down!

The Muslim community faces the same challenges that the Jewish people have faced in America for years. I was reading an article in the Jewish War Veterans periodical about a Jewish soldier that was shot by a peer in upstate New York in the run up to WWI, only to have anarchist protests take place at his funeral in Brooklyn. They were armed, as were the counter-protesters, but even in 1917, there was no call to suborn the freedoms of the anarchists. We have our state-assured freedoms, but none of that includes a freedom from being challenged, rightly or wrongly. I believe my own community has become stronger and more tightly woven into the American fabric because of this. So, too, I believe, will our Muslim peers.

All the best,
bk

I support the First Amendment, but this is disrespectful and inflammatory. Hating on someone else's values and beliefs in a blatant display of contempt is no better than the Westboro Baptist Church protesting at soldiers' funerals. They're also protected by our constitutional rights, and they're also horrible people. This isn't cool or edgy or whatever it is they're going for, this is stupid.

January 7, 2015, Paris, France
Ahmed Merabet, Police Officer, died outside of Charlie Hebdo's offices. He was Muslim!

Such a contest is idiotic! Doing such a contest in front of a Mosque is of poor taste, poor character, and poor mind! Give me a break! For real! It also is bullying! They can do their contest somewhere else! I'm Christian, but I don't see why anyone who has respect for other religions and cultures would ever purposefully provoke others. There are peaceful American Muslims who just simply are being provoked because of their religious beliefs (aka they are being bullied)! Nothing good has ever come from bullying. I see no problem if Muslims participate in a Muhammad cartoon contest. That would be different! Oh, the Freedom of Speech and expression argument? I've experienced enough moments when certain "Freedom of Speech and Expression seekers (or abusers)" better shut up for a change! This is total provocation! If someone were to do such a contest in front of my church, yes, I'd get angry and I'd think they are not right in their mind! Je suis Charlie et je suis aussi Ahmed, oui, mais au même temp je suis aussi la Paix!

I took the photo in France in January 2015 when the terrorist attack occured.

A TIME BOMB

Either everything is free speech or nothing is.

I hope they have a great time exercising that freedom and are willing to share the results (or at least some of them) with the rest of the world.

Welcome to low-speed / high-drag land...
Pretty sure the guy on the right is a Jade-Helm operator...

freedom of expression...simple as that.....Somehow I have a feeling the Leftist will blame the conservatives when it not our fault in the 1st place