the clash of fundamentalisms, part two

The Washington Post has coverage of last night's rumble in the OC over the Danish Mohammed cartoons. I have uploaded my photos of the event.

I attended the event because I support freedom of speech. I believe that newspapers should publish the cartoons and not be intimidated by the anti-free speech crowd. What I learned from attending the panel was that the pro-cartoon crowd is just as indignant towards free speech as the Muslim protesters are.

A civilized, rational discussion was impossible with a panel composed of Islamophobe Lee Harvey, Jewish Black Republican Ted Hayes, and homophobic Jesus freak Reverend Jesse Lee Peterson.

The only level headed member of the panel was a soft-spoken Syrian-American man named Abed from a anti-terrorist Muslim-American group. I was interested in what he had to say but the rabid crowd shouted him down and eventually his fellow panel members triple-teamed him with attacks on Islam. The Reverend said he doesn't trust Muslims because "Islam is an evil religion". You can't have much rational debate with uncompromising, fundamentalist statements like that.

The ultimate hypocrisy is that people supposedly attended this event to support freedom of speech. However, when anyone in the crowd had a question or point of view slightly to the left of John Birch they were told to either "shut up", "go back to Mecca" or were physically removed from the auditorium by campus police.

Conservatives used this as a chest-thumping opportunity to sing the praises of Jesus, the United States, and President Bush. The Reverend, after saying that the only hope for Muslims is to be "born again" said "I love President Bush, thank God for President Bush".

Therefore, the panel was not a discussion but a pep rally for conservatives to bash non-Christians, liberal African-Americans, gays and Muslims.