Free Republic

'Let the savage, rioting masses know we will not bow to the lunacy of Islam' In 2010 filmmaker and Daily Kos columnist Eric Allen Bell was harvesting all the fruits of an American leftist in Hollywood: connections, lucrative contracts, rising fame and fortune and especially the paternal nod of approval of the powers that be. His peer and co-worker Michael Moore was piling up the Oscars, and all was right with their little version of the world. And then came Bell’s documentary project “Not Welcome,” concerning a Bible Belt backlash against the construction of a 53,000 square-foot mega-mosque. In the...

Here is the scary thing about this column: No more than one in 50 readers knows who Molly Norris is. A month ago, I did not know, so I am hardly in a position to talk. What got me interested was author Larry Kelley’s appeal to launch a “Molly Norris Project.” In his brave book, “Lessons from Fallen Civilizations: Can a Bankrupt America Survive the Current Islamic Threat,” Kelley asks why a White House that labors to protect alleged victims of the fictional “Republican War on Women” does nothing to protect real victims of the Islamic war on women. One...

Rocco Landesman is the chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts. Boy, does he know how to spin the official line on offensive art. In a recent interview in Cincinnati, he was asked vaguely about controversy. "The best art taps into deep feelings, sometimes to comfort and sometimes to confront. Art can be very uncomfortable," Landesman said. "That can lead to strong reactions. For some of us, it draws us into the arts over our lifetimes and careers. For others, it creates strong negative feelings." Landesman wasn't being asked specifically about negative feelings over the Loveland Museum Gallery in...

Norris and all Americans currently live under the "Rushdie Rules," which punish whoever disrespects Islam, Muhammad, or the Koran. Make fun of Muhammad and you're on your own. Local and national politicians had nothing to say about her plight. Journalists, usually keen to protect one of their own, went silent. No organization sprung up to raise money for her protection.

While I've been talking about free speech in Copenhagen, several free speech issues arose in North America. I was asked about them both at the Sappho Award event and in various interviews, so here's a few thoughts for what they're worth: Too many people in the free world have internalized Islam’s view of them. A couple of years ago, I visited Guantanamo and subsequently wrote that, if I had to summon up Gitmo in a single image, it would be the brand-new copy of the Koran in each cell: To reassure incoming prisoners that the filthy infidels haven't touched the...

America is sick.  We The People are not sick, but the body politic is, and our nation suffers from a Carteresque malaise. We suffer from a few cancerous growths, and termites and rodents have eaten away much of our constitutional foundation.  A bipartisan gang of chiselers has turned our federal government into a criminal enterprise that hands out taxpayer money in exchange for votes, but we're wise to their depredations and we're fixin' to clean house.  Literally. In Obama's America, Journalists hide from Muslim extremists The story of journalist Molly Norris, now in hiding from Muslim murderers, saddens me.  It...

Even at a time when a torrent of words floods the world every nanosecond of ever day, the words of Mark D. Fefer of the Seattle Weekly were chilling, as befit the circumstances. "You may have noticed that Molly Norris' comic is not in the paper this week," Fefer wrote. "That's because there is no more Molly." On a lark, Norris called for an Everybody Draw Mohammad Day to protest the death threats against those who had dared to draw Mohammad. The Koran apparently forbids depictions of Mohammad, and Revolution Muslim posted on its Web site a picture of the...

The gifted artist is alive and well, thankfully. But on the insistence of top security specialists at the FBI, she is, as they put it, "going ghost": moving, changing her name, and essentially wiping away her identity. She will no longer be publishing cartoons in our paper or in City Arts magazine, where she has been a regular contributor. She is, in effect, being put into a witness-protection program—except, as she notes, without the government picking up the tab. It's all because of the appalling fatwa issued against her this summer, following her infamous "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day" cartoon.Norris views...

<p>"There is no more Molly," reports Seattle Weekly. Molly Norris, formerly a cartoonist for the alternative paper, has gone into hiding. At the suggestion of the FBI, "she is, as they put it, 'going ghost': moving, changing her name, and essentially wiping away her identity."</p>

U.S. cartoonist Molly Norris has been declared a 'target' by radical Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who has issued a fatwa calling for her death. The social satirist, who stirred up a religious storm earlier this year with a tongue-in-cheek encouragement to draw images of the Muslim prophet Mohammed, has gone into hiding after threats to her safety. Cleric al-Awlaki, 39, who is thought to be hiding in Yemen and has links to al Qaeda, said in the June issue of 'Inspire', an English-language magazine for American Muslim youth, that Norris was a 'prime target' whose 'proper abode is hellfire.' Now...

(Sept. 15) -- So much for freedom of speech. At the urging of the FBI, Molly Norris, the Seattle-based illustrator and cartoonist whose satirical drawing marking "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day" resulted in death threats, global protests and impassioned debate about religion and censorship, has been forced to change her name and abandon her former life as a result of her controversial cartoon. The news that Morris had, out of concerns for her safety, decided to go into hiding was first reported in the Seattle Weekly today, a paper where Norris' cartoons had regularly appeared: The gifted artist is alive and...

Seattle cartoonist launches "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day" After Comedy Central cut a portion of a South Park episode following a death threat from a radical Muslim group, Seattle cartoonist Molly Norris wanted to counter the fear. She has declared May 20th "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day." Norris told KIRO Radio's Dave Ross that cartoonists are meant to challenge the lines of political correctness. "That's a cartoonist's job, to be non-PC." Listen to Molly Norris on Dave Ross Producers of South Park said Thursday that Comedy Central removed a speech about intimidation and fear from their show after a radical Muslim group...

Molly Norris is a cartoonist. On her blog she suggested that there be a "Draw Mohammed" Day in a tongue in cheek effort to protest the Comedy Channel's censorship of a South Park episode. It blew up on her. If the Internet respected intentions, Seattle cartoonist Molly Norris might have had a good May. "It's been horrible," Norris said from her home Wednesday. "I'm just trying to breathe and get through it." It is a culturally, religiously and even racially charged viral movement Norris sparked in April when she drew a cartoon to protest Comedy Central's decision to nix a...

OPINION: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/16/AR2010071604206.html “Americans must not be cowed by Muslim objections to cartoons” By Kathleen Parker Sunday, July 18, 2010 SNIPPET: “You may recall that Norris, once a relatively unknown Seattle cartoonist, was first threatened a few months ago by some bloggers on an obscure Web site, Revolution Muslim, for attempting to draw the prophet Muhammad. More recently, she has been named to an execution list on Inspire, a new online English-language al-Qaeda magazine, which aims to recruit American Muslims for jihad.”