George - the Other

Anti-Free Speech Rally in DC ...

Malik Zulu Shabazz, in the middle of one of his tirades. Claiming that he was the son of slaves and that, “"I built America.” He spent about two hours blaming terrorism on the Danes, America (or as he would often say, the United Snakes), the French, Jews, whites, etc. (Secret Service agents visible in background since the Danish Embassy is across the street form Hillary Clinton's DC mansion). He hardly spoke about the cartoons.

He threatened us, "It's a good thing the police are here, or else."

He also said we need to be like him and submit to Allah, and that Islam intends to rule the world.
(Wouldn’t that make Shabazz a slave? I thought he hated slavery, yet he wants to enslave the world.)

He said we had no right to criticize Islam, and that he and others were there to "teach" us about Islam (boy, aren't they)

We countered, in so many words, saying that he was full of shit (the police asked us not to incite the Muslims - I wonder why? - )

A lot of his remarks were plain silly, like how Islam was going to ruin Denmark by not buying it's products and calling us “cannibals.”

He criticized America for being a nation of guns. We agreed and told him we knew how to use them, too!

He demanded the "right" for Islam have nuclear bombs ... a scary thought for sure. He was reminded that Pakistan, as Islamic nation, already has them. Then he demanded 10,000 to equal America’s nuclear strength. We taunted him by saying that since he “built America,” he was responsible for building those bombs.

He called us "all Zionists," though there was only one Jewish person in our group.

He did actually say we deserved to have our heads cut off, to which we responded, "What about the religion of peace?"

There were roughly 24 anti-free speech demonstrators and 20 counter protesters. Though they brought along a generator powered PA, we frequently drowned them out with shear enthusiastic lungpower, plus 3 of our members had powered megaphones.

I was given a large American flag to hold, about 10' from the ground to top, plus I held a smaller Danish flag that I printed out on my home computer. We all had Danish flags of different sizes. Whenever Shabazz would bash the Danes, or say we had to submit to Allah, myself, along with others would hoist those flags high and drown him out by yelling "Freedom, freedom, freedom...")

We demanded that one of the Muslim women there be allowed to speak. Shabazz said when he was through, we'd hear from one. I yelled out, "But is she free?" The Muslim woman never materialized. I must have pissed of Shabazz a number of times; by the glares he sent my direction, like when I called him a liar. And I can yell really LOUD.

We'll, except for a lot of shouting everything was peaceful. We also sang songs like "I'd love to be an Oscar Meyer Wiener" and "Jingle Bells," to mock the intention of the protesters.

Shabazz did become enraged when we sang "Kumbaya" - "HOW DARE YOU SING KUMBAYA?" Our response was along the lines of, "Welcome to America, pal." (Shabazz grew up in America)

There was a strong police presence, with about 10 officers behind us (we were in FRONT of the barricades, directly in front of the protesters), plus other officers were down the street to our right, and others in the wooded area to our left. We made a point of thanking the police afterwards.

For the most part, the media was kept behind a barricade to our right. I guess there were maybe a dozen, including a reporter from the Washington Post, a cameraman from CNN, Michelle Malkin from Town Hall and a reporter from a Danish newspaper.

After two hours, they left. The police took down all the barricades. We gathered our stuff, and everyone headed back home.

The poor turnout on behalf of the Muslim extremists might indicate that moderate Muslims in our society want nothing to do with these fanatics. There is a Muslim community near where I live and I see these people whenever I grocery shop. A few even work there. They look like ordinary decent folks and I'm sure the majority are.

Whether the extremists like it or not, Muslims here are becoming Americanized. The extremists forget that the immigrants came here to get away from the oppression in the Middle East. I'm not saying that America doesn't have its problems, but the opportunities here are very great. I see Middle Eastern owned businesses all the time. They came here to fulfill their dreams, not destroy them.


George 2/19/2006

posted by George - the Other @ 6:50 AM