Posted on 06/05/2013 3:54:48 AM PDT by Kaslin
A U.S. attorney in Tennessee said that it's possible that some inflammatory criticism of Muslims posted on social networking sites could violate federal civil rights laws.
“We need to educate people about Muslims and their civil rights, and as long as we’re here, they’re going to be protected,” U.S. attorney Bill Killian told the Tullahoma News last week. “This is also to inform the public about what federal laws are in effect and what the consequences are.”
Killian, along with an FBI agent, are expected to attend a meeting Tuesday in Manchester, Tenn. hosted by a local Muslim group to “educate people on the First Amendment and its application in society.”
His comments sparked concern among conservative groups that the federal government is about to crack down on anti-Muslim rhetoric -- a claim the U.S. attorney denies.
“It has nothing to do with Sharia law,” Killian told me in a telephone interview. “It has to do with the United States Constitution and federal statutes. You have a right under the First Amendment to hate Muslims. You can hate all Muslims if you want to."
But he added a caveat -- "as long as it does not rise to the level of violating federal civil rights laws.”
The meeting comes after a Tennessee lawmaker posted a photograph of a man aiming a shotgun with the caption, “How to wink at a Muslim.”
“It’s an open forum to discuss the First Amendment -- to discuss its application to all religions and to Muslim religions,” he said. “And to discuss federal civil rights statutes which we’ve done at other times and other places.”
Killian said the federal government has participated in at least a dozen similar Muslim education meetings across the state.
But Andy Miller, of the Tennessee Freedom Coalition, believes the federal government is using those meetings to silence and intimidate critics of Islam.
“There’s an effort to step on free speech -- any speech that’s contrary to Islam,” Miller tells me. “It seems like our federal government is going down that path.”
Miller said Tennessee has become a battleground over what he called a crackdown on anti-Muslim speech.
“This is the Bible Belt,” he said. “There’s an effort to prove that if they can do it here, they can do it anywhere.”
Killian said the supposition that the federal government would prosecute people for exercising their constitutional rights is “ridiculous.”
“We don’t prosecute people for the First Amendment,” he said. “In fact, this event is promoting the First Amendment for all people -- not only to exercise their religion, but to express their freedom of speech regardless of what it is.”
But the big question is where free speech might cross the line and violate federal civil rights laws.
“Could an Internet posting or letter in the mail or a phone call or a personal confrontation constitute a violation of those statutes,” he asked, citing 18 US Code 241 and 18 US Code 245. “Yes, it could.”
So what about the lawmaker who posted the photograph of the shotgun? Would that be a violation of federal law?
“I don’t know whether it does or not,” Killian said. “We’re treating that as if it were offensive conduct and trying to use this event as we have on many other occasions in the district -- utilize events of this nature to have people understand the Muslim religion and the Arab and Muslim people.”
Miller said the government’s explanation is problematic.
“It doesn’t make anybody here locally feel any better,” he said. “It seems as though they are creating a sacred group here that consistently gets attention from the federal government.”
“It’s interesting the Department of Justice and Homeland Security really seem to take up the banner for the Muslim population,” Miller said. “Why aren’t they having one for the Baptists? Why aren’t they having one for the Methodists? Why aren’t they having one for Jews?”
And Judicial Watch, a conservative watchdog group, believes the Obama administration is using federal law to protect Muslims from criticism, Politico reports.
“In its latest effort to protect followers of Islam in the U.S., the Obama Justice Department warns against using social media to spread information considered inflammatory against Muslims, threatening that it could constitute a violation of civil rights,” the group wrote online.
10 minute interview with Andy McCarthy:
“Using federal civil rights laws to criminalize negative criticism of Islam. For example, this conversation we are having right now would be something the DOJ might investigate as a potential crime under the civil rights laws. If they take that tack, that is the evisceration of the first amendment and the country is pretty much over if that’s where we are headed...”
McCarthy also discusses McCain’s trip to Syria by way of Turkey, “Turkey being now our Nato ally and the lifeline for the Hamas terrorist organization. I can’t say that enough times because I can’t wrap my brain around how we let that happen.”
http://www.centerforsecuritypolicy.org/podpress_trac/web/181892/2/06042013_McCarthy.mp3
The simple answer to this not so big question is that it cannot happen. Free speech cannot "cross the line" and cannot "violate federal civil rights laws". By definition, so long as we are a constitutional republic, federal civil rights laws cannot abridge the freedom of speech.
Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the freedom of speech. The First Amendment is perfectly clear, and I will not defer to any law that violates the First Amendment. In fact, I will go out of my way to publicly violate any such interpretation of the law.
And the Koran is Satan’s scripture.
This is Obama’s DOJ taking away our free speech on the Internet.
Our country is not America anymore, it is no longer a free country.
The Obama democrat used the IRS to rig the election and still the IRS is preventing conservative groups from helping on legislaation ,2014 etc. Notice that liberals have all the money as all we hear on Rush is the liberal commercials for Amnesty posing as conservatives.
The question is which government agency is the democrat Obama not using to rig elections, target political enemies, or take away our freedoms?
Obama has used just about every gov agency to target and intimidate political enemies. The news media instead reports on Holmes the mass shooter. if this were a Republican president the IRS hearings would be on all TV networks live all day long
Islam is what Muslims do, and day in, day out, it is an ugly picture overall.
http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/
LOL!
Scare tactics. If it were against the law to insult , bloodletting, goat-humping camel jockeys, there would have been no question that it 'could' violate a *law*.
------
Islam - the barbaric religion of inequality and human sacrifice......
Come and get me, DOJ.
I'm sick of this crap, and YOU are out of your jurisdiction, you totalitarian POS!
Has anyone published a full account with pictures and videos? It would be great to see it here. Sounds like there were a lot of patriots.
“Muslim son of a whore” is the perfect way to describe Obama.
This is why the shotgun-bearing man, showing how to wink at a Muslim could be appropriate, and not extreme.
And the GOP/RNC response to what so clearly should be a firing and bitch-slap?? Crickets...
The 2nd is also so clear, as is the 9th and 10th. That doesn’t mean the D.C. crowd and their payroll (IE: judges) won’t still throw anyone in the gulag.
If you have not seen this post, you need to. It NAILS what is happening and why we must be diligent:
http://freerepublic.com/focus/news/3022557/posts?page=27#27
ROPE.
TREE.
NECK. (Some assembly required.)
If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.
..................
I wonder where there lies more passion, in Obama's love for Islamic radicals or in his hatred for the United States of America.
Unreal. And Christians continue to be slandered, berated, day in day out not to mention the federal governments attempts to force Christians to go against their faith. This regime led by this twice unconstitutionally elected ADMITTED foreign born communist Kenyan can KISS MY A—!
FLASHBACK:
Barack Obama: Nasa must try to make Muslims ‘feel good’
The Telegraph
By Toby Harnden in Washington | 06 Jul 2010
Excerpt:
The head of the Nasa has said Barack Obama told him to make “reaching out to the Muslim world” one of the space agency’s top priorities.
(...)
Ya know, these are pretty broad and could be easily applied to any mosque where the Muzzies are preaching Jihad.
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/241
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/245
Of course, the DoJ won’t apply them there. Select enforcement is the favorite tool of tyranny.
18 USC Section 241 also definitely applies to the coordinated activities of the regime in trying to deny free speech rights to the Tea Parties and other conservative groups and individuals. Of course, getting it enforced is rather a bit of a different matter.
That's a keeper.
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