THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume XIII, Issue # 28, January 26, 2011
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
THE KEVIN BACON OF AMERICAN JIHAD
By Adam Turner
THE ISLAMIST FIFTH COLUMN & THE THREAT IT POSES TO FREE SPEECH IN AMERICA & EUROPE: THE ACTIVITIES &
INFLUENCE OF REVOLUTION MUSLIM, A U.S.-BASED ISLAMIST JIHADIST ORGANIZATION -- THE INVOLVEMENT OF
REVOLUTION MUSLIM IN THE SUPPRESSION OF FREE EXPRESSION -- THE "SOUTH PARK" INCIDENT -- THE MOLLY NORRIS
INCIDENT -- THE CHOUDHRY INCIDENT -- NEEDED: ENACTMENT BY THE U.S. CONGRESS OF THE PROPOSED DEFEND
EXPRESSION FROM ISLAMISTS ACT, WHICH WOULD MAKE IT A FEDERAL CRIME TO THREATEN OR USE FORCE AGAINST
INDIVIDUALS EXERCISING FREE SPEECH RIGHTS & WHICH WOULD EMPOWER VICTIMS OF ISLAMIST THREATS TO SUE FOR
DAMAGES
FULL STORY:
Revolution Muslim, a U.S.-based radical Islamic jihadist organization, has become the Kevin Bacon of Islamic
fundamentalism. Whenever jihadist groups threaten free speech in America or Europe, you can bet an associate of
Revolution Muslim is somehow involved.
During an 18-month period, eight of the 27 reported cases of homegrown terrorism saw U.S. terror suspects
frequenting, blogging on, or directly linked to Revolution Muslim or a related group. The group's website was
originally at RevolutionMuslim.com. When their service provider shut them down on November 5, 2010, they
reconstituted at IslamPolicy.com. To date, the threats that have emanated from the Revolution Muslim websites have
never been adequately legally addressed by the U.S.
Revolution Muslim's influence is most visible in three recent incidents where Islamic extremists threatened the free
speech of artists, politicians, and even private citizens:
THE "SOUTH PARK" INCIDENT
On April 15, 2010, Comedy Central aired the first of a two-part South Park episode featuring a character in a
bear suit identified as the Islamic Prophet Muhammad. Zachary Chesser of Virginia, a member of Revolution Muslim,
posted on the group's website that South Park's creators, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, had "outright insulted"
Islam's religious leader. He continued:
"We have to warn Matt and Trey that what they are doing
is stupid and they will probably wind up like Theo Van
Gogh for airing this show. This is not a threat, but a
warning of the reality of what will likely happen to them.
He also called for his supporters to "pay [Parker and Stone] a visit" and posted the addresses of Comedy
Central's New York office, Parker and Stone's California production office, and a link to an article detailing Parker
and Stone's home in Colorado.
In the following days, Chesser posted numerous additional comments and uploaded several videos and recordings,
including one by Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born Islamist cleric currently hiding in Yemen, which further justified
the murder of Parker and Stone. Panicking, Comedy Central censored part two of the episode by bleeping out
language, including its criticism of censorship, a speech against intimidation, and every use of the name "Muhammad."
Nevertheless, this rather obvious threat was not prosecuted by state or local law enforcement officials. New York
City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said authorities didn't think it "rises to a crime right now."
Months later, on July 21, 2010, Chesser was arrested on independent charges for trying to board a plane to Somalia to
join al-Shabaab, a brutal terrorist organization with ties to al-Qa'ida. It was only months after that, on the eve of a plea
agreement, that he was finally charged for making internet threats against Parker and Stone in violation of 18 U.S.C.
875(c). On October 20, 2010, Chesser pleaded guilty to a three-count criminal indictment.
THE MOLLY NORRIS INCIDENT
On April 20, 2010, partly in response to Comedy Central's self-censorship, Seattle Weekly cartoonist
Molly Norris proposed an "Everybody Draw Muhammad Day (EDMD)." Her point? Freedom implies the right to
criticize and caricature, and this freedom was now in jeopardy because a minority of Muslims believe the majority of
non-Muslims can be easily intimidated.
Her idea caught on and pretty soon there was a Facebook page devoted to EDMD, a page which over a hundred
thousand people joined. That is when Anwar al-Awlaki issued a fatwa calling for Norris to be murdered. This fatwa
prompted Zachary Chesser to gather personal information on at least eleven Facebook friends of EDMD and to post it
on Revolution Muslim's website in a comment thread that also contained videos and discussion justifying punishing
anyone who insults Muhammad.
Chesser characterized the information he provided as "just a place to start." According to federal prosecutors, the
lives of the private citizens and Facebook users Chesser identified as EDMD supporters "will remain at risk for many
years to come." Frightened by the threats, Molly Norris recanted and disavowed EDMD, but it was too late. On
September 15, 2010, the Seattle Weekly informed its readers:
"You may have noticed that Molly Norris' comic is not
in the paper this week. That's because there is no more
Molly. 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….
THE CHOUDHRY INCIDENT
On May 14, 2010, Roshonara Choudhry, a British prize-winning student at King's College, London, stabbed former
British MP Stephen Timms in London because he supported the Iraq war.
In interviews immediately following her arrest, Choudhry told police she resolved to strike Timms after viewing over
100 hours of video sermons given by radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, which she had found posted on Revolution
Muslim and other websites. She began listening to the sermons in November, 2009, and completed them just days
before she carried out her attack.
After her attack, members of Revolution Muslim published praise of Ms. Choudhry as a "heroine" and expressed the
hope "for her action to inspire Muslims to raise the knife of jihad against those who voted for the countless rapes,
murders, pillages, and torture of Muslim civilians as a direct consequence of their vote." The organization also
posted a list of 383 British lawmakers who voted for the Iraqi war, accompanied by instructions on how to track these
lawmakers' movements, as well as a link for buying a kitchen knife.
The British government demanded the website be taken down, and, on November 5, 2010, Revolution Muslim's
website closed. Shortly thereafter the website resurfaced as IslamPolicy.com.
To defend free speech rights from intimidation by the likes of Revolution Muslim, the Legal Project has proposed the
Defend Expression from Islamists (DEFI) Act. This legislation would make it a federal crime to threaten or use force
against individuals exercising free speech rights.
A federal statute is both necessary and proper. Islamic radicalism is a national concern. Frequently, when Islamists
threaten Americans they do so over the internet and from another state or country. At the same time, existing state
laws are inadequate. The heightened standard of proof deters local prosecutors from investing scarce resources,
explicit grounds for a civil suit do not always exist, and damages can be difficult to quantify.
Perhaps the most significant aspect of DEFI — which is lacking in criminal statues like 18 U.S.C. 875(c) — is that it
empowers victims of Islamist threats to sue for damages. This provision transforms them from passive victims into
private attorneys general to defend their rights in a setting with a lower burden of proof and preset damages.
One law, by itself, won't entirely halt groups like Revolution Muslim from threatening free speech. But it is about time
we did something tangible to punish them for their threats. When Comedy Central was intimidated into
censoring itself on American television, the federal government did nothing. When Molly Norris was forced to go
ghost, the federal government did not pick up the tab. And when the Revolution Muslim jihadists inspired a British
Muslim to attempt to assassinate a member of the British Parliament, and then threatened the lives of other British
legislators, the U.S. federal government's sole response was allegedly pressuring Google to shutter the site.
Revolution Muslim simply changed its website name and migrated to another server, without any legal consequences
for the true threats it made. This kind of appeasement should end, now.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Political Correctness, Censorship, Thought Control:
Supression of Unacceptable Views & Opinions
The Islamist Fifth Column -- America's Internal Enemies:
Disloyalty, Subversion, Sedition, & Treason
Islamism & Jihadism -- The Threat of Radical Islam
Page Three
Page Two
Page One
Middle East -- Arabs, Arab States,
& Their Middle Eastern Neighbors
American Foreign Policy -- The Middle East
International Politics & World Disorder:
War, Peace, & Geopolitics in the Real World:
Foreign Affairs & U.S. National Security
Page Two
Page One
Islamist Terrorist Attacks on the U.S.A.
Osama bin Laden & the Islamist Declaration of War
Against the U.S.A. & Western Civilization
Islamist International Terrorism &
U.S. Intelligence Agencies
Counterterrorism & U.S. National Security
U.S. National Security Strategy
Adam Turner serves as Staff Counsel to The Legal Project of the Middle East Forum. He is a former counsel to the
U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, where he focused on national security issues, including national security law. His
area of expertise includes the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the international law of warfare, foreign sovereign
immunity, and U.S. law on torture. As Senate Judiciary Committee Counsel, Mr. Turner helped pass legislation making
it easier for victims to sue and collect damages from state sponsors of terrorism. Turner holds the J.D. (law degree)
from George Mason University, the Master of Arts in Political Science from American University, and the Bachelor of
Arts in Political Science from Pennsylvania State University.
The foregoing article by Adam Turner was originally published in Pajamas Media, January 26, 2011, and
can be found on the Internet website maintained by the Middle East Forum, a foreign policy think tank which seeks to
define and promote American interests in the Middle East, defining U.S. interests to include fighting radical Islam,
working for Palestinian Arab acceptance of the State of Israel, improving the management of U.S. efforts to promote
constitutional democracy in the Middle East, reducing America's energy dependence on the Middle East, more robustly
asserting U.S. interests vis-ŕ-vis Saudi Arabia, and countering the Iranian threat.
(URL: http://www.meforum.org/2826/revolution-muslim-american-jihad)
Republished with Permission of the Middle East Forum
Reprinted from the Middle East Forum News
mefnews@meforum.org (MEF NEWS)
January 26, 2011
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