Guilty of Insulting Islam*
* This is the headline from frontpage.com, a conservative site. Nevertheless, they've gone to the trouble of presenting a supportive interview with Ernest Perce, a/k/a "Zombie Mohammed", one of the Parading Atheists of Central Pennsylvania of recent fame. Apparently the rightwing is shameless about coopting any ideology, religious or irreligious, to advance its agenda.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FrontPage_Magazine
Here is Ernie's youtube video of the event.
Last October, Ernest Perce was marching in a Halloween parade in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, dressed up as a zombie version of the prophet Mohammed when he was physically confronted by Talaag Elbayomy, a Muslim immigrant who found his costume offensive. According to Perce, Elbayomy grabbed him, chocked him, and then tried to rip off the “Mohammed of Islam” sign that Pence wore around his neck. Elbayomy later admitted to a police officer on the scene that he had tried to grab the sign, believing that it was a crime in the United States to insult Mohammed. But when Pence brought criminal harassment charges against Elbayomy, the district judge, Judge Mark Martin, dismissed the case. More outrageously, he proceeded to lecture Perce in a stunningly ignorant fashion about his rights under the First Amendment. After claiming that the First Amendment was intended “so that we could speak what’s on our mind, not to piss off other people and cultures,” and informing Perce that in Muslim countries causing such offense to Islam “could be punished by death, and frequently is,” the judge in effect blamed Pence rather than his attacker. “You are way outside your bounds of First Amendment rights,” the judge concluded. Since then, the judge’s comments (which he does not deny making) have touched off a national firestorm of criticism and controversy. Perce, the Pennsylvania state director of American Atheists, joined Front Page to discuss his legal ordeal, the threat to free speech in the U.S., and the explosive reaction to the case.
FP: What message or messages do you think were sent by the judge’s decision to dismiss your case – and especially by his decision to chastise for you giving offense to Muslims?
EP: In my opinion, the message sent by the judge is that Muslims now have the absolute right to defend their religious beliefs, even if by means of force.
FP: In the course of berating you, the judge claimed that the American Founders did not mean for the First Amendment to be used to give offence but rather to speak one’s mind. Among other problems, that would seem to be a contradiction, since speaking one’s mind is liable to give offence. What did you make of his reasoning in this regard?
http://frontpagemag.com/2012/04/20/guilty-of-insulting-islam/
Like a true zombie, this story shuffles on and on, slowly and inexorably.
= new reply since forum marked as read
