Armed bikers planned a “Freedom of Speech” rally outside a Phoenix mosque Friday, and although Islamic State members allegedly tweeted threats like “we promise u we will drink ur blood,” actual insults at the event were limited to the spoken variety.
Former U.S. Marine Jon Ritzheimer, organizer of the rally, wore a T-shirt that proudly proclaimed his views: “F— Islam.” Across a guarded police line, counter-protesters held signs that quoted the Bible and said “F— ISIS, not Islam” and wore shirts that said, “Love Thy Neighbor.”
The two groups yelled at each other through a tense few hours as police stood between them to keep them apart, CNN reported.
The choice of the Community Center of Phoenix as the grounds for the free speech protest is not accidental. Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi, the would-be attackers shot dead at Pamela Geller’s Prophet Mohammed cartoon contest earlier this month, attended this mosque.
Megaphone guy tears up Quran at protest outside #PHXMosque #12News pic.twitter.com/8i4LwCb8yP
— BrahmResnik (@brahmresnik) May 30, 2015
In homage to Pamela Geller’s event hosted in Garland, Texas, “The Freedom of Speech” rally had its own cartoon contest.
“I think the whole thing, the cartoon contest especially, I think it’s stupid and ridiculous,” CNN reports Ritzheimer said pre-event. “But it’s what needs to take place in order to expose the true colors of Islam.”
Six hundred people responded on a Facebook page for the event that they would attend, including armed bikers. Although the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) claimed to CNN that it had advised people to steer “clear from the event,” YouTube videos show several protestors wearing CAIR shirts and holding “Love thy neighbor” signs with CAIR branding on the bottom.
The event represents the “intersection of Islamophobia and gun culture,” said CAIR’s Imraan Siddiqi to CNN.
Most Muslims believe that depictions of Mohammed are forbidden by Islamic law.
“Even expressions that are offensive, that are distasteful, and intended to sow divisions in an otherwise tight-knit, diverse community in Phoenix cannot be used as a justification to carry out an act of violence,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said pre-event.
Police Chief Joe Yahner told CNN that he was personally arranging public safety during the event: “There’s a lot of things in the works. The intelligence related to the crowd is changing all the time.”
He planned to have police cameras record the event and to have the police close roads.
“It is a very scattered group of individuals with different causes that for the most part are signing on and signing up to come to this,” Sgt. Trent Crump, a Phoenix police spokesman, told CNN.
The event’s organizer said he planned to go into hiding afterward due to the death threats he’s allegedly received.
“I’m having to go into hiding after this because [Islamists] are calling lone wolves to come in and behead me,” said Ritzheimer. “That’s tyranny. That’s terrorism right here in America.”
