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Police officer shot at 'Muhammad art contest' in Texas
Posted By Art Moore On 05/03/2015 @ 8:41 pm In Front Page,Politics,U.S. | No Comments
Geert Wilders speaking at the event Sunday night in Texas where a police officer was shot (WND photo)
GARLAND, Texas – An officer who was part of the heavy security for a free-speech event called the “Muhammad Art Exhibit and Cartoon Contest” featuring Dutch politician Geert Wilders was shot outside the building shortly after the event ended at approximately 7 p.m. Central Time.
Two suspects, who got out of their car and started shooting, were shot and killed by police. The injured officer, with the Garland Independent School District, was shot in the lower leg. Identified as Bruce Joiner, his injuries were not life threatening, and he was released from the hospital.
A SWAT officer told WND two suspects were “down,” but law-enforcement officers put a perimeter around them, fearing they may have had explosive devices in their car. Police helicopters continued to patrol as a Plano Police Department bomb squad worked on the scene, and a perimeter around the entire complex was still in place four hours after the incident.
Surrounding businesses, including a Walmart and an Academy store, were evacuated.
On Thursday, a Twitter account purporting to belong to Mohamed Abdullahi Hassan, an American jihadi reportedly fighting in Somalia, called for attacks to be carried out in the United States similar to the massacre of the Charlie Hebdo cartoonists in Paris in January.
The following message accompanied a link to a story about the event in Garland Sunday night:
“The brothers from the Charlie hebdo attack did their part. It’s time for brothers in the #US to do their part.”
Geert Wilders’ documentary “Islam Rising: Geert Wilders’ Warning to the West” is available at WND’s Superstore
The event was hosted by the American Freedom Defense Initiative, led by author and Atlas Shrugs blogger Pamela Geller, and author and Jihad Watch Director Robert Spencer, who both were immediately whisked away after the shots were fired.
WND reached Spencer later for his reaction.
“This attack shows how much our event was needed,” he said. “The freedom of speech is under violent attack here in the U.S. now. We are at a crossroads as a nation now: Will we defend the freedom of speech or submit to violent intimidation?”
A local imam, Zia Sheikh, tweeted his dismay at the news.
“Shots fired at Pamela Geller event. The community stayed away from event. Seems like a lone wolf type of attack. Just what we didn’t want.”
Texas Gov. Gregg Abbott released a statement.
“Texas officials are actively investigating to determine the cause and scope of the senseless attack in Garland, Texas,” he said. “This is a crime that was quickly ended thanks to the swift action by Garland law enforcement. Our thoughts and prayers remain with all those affected tonight.”
SWAT officers prepare to escort media to their cars in Garland, Texas, Sunday night after an officer was shot at a Muhammad art event (WND photo)
Attendees, including this reporter, were moved to a secure location at the Curtis Culwell Center in suburban Dallas. After about 90 minutes, SWAT officers escorted media to their cars, which had been parked at a designated location. Attendees, however, were moved to another location away from the campus because police were still securing the main parking lot.
Wilders left the building with members of his permanent Dutch security detail before the shooting.
Later, he tweeted a photo showing him with members of the Garland SWAT team.
“Thank God the heroes of SWAT-team prevented the worst,” he said.
Before the event, a SWAT officer spoke to WND about the extraordinary security, which included a portable police tower, metal detectors at the entrance and a blockades outside.
“The reason why we have the security here is the reason why they would have it in France,” he said. “What would make you think it wouldn’t happen here?”
The event attendees sequestered in an arena at the center, which is owned by the Garland Independent School District, sang “God Bless America” and the national anthem as one attendee held up a U.S. flag. Two women then led in prayer for the injured officer, whose condition was unknown at the time.
A witness of the shooting, John Roby of Oklahoma City, told WND he was heading out to his car when he heard what sounded like automatic-weapon fire coming from a black vehicle on the street outside the center. Immediately, he heard two pistol shots, and a police officer screamed, “We’ve got the car, we’ve got the car.”
Roby said the shooters were headed east on Naaman Forest Road outside the center, and the car was stopped in the road.
Organizers of the Muhammad art event in Garland, Texas, estimate they spent $40,000 for extra security (WND photo)
‘Time for brothers to do their part’
The Curtis Culwell Center was the site of a Jan. 17 event one week after the Charlie Hebdo massacre, called “Stand With the Prophet in Honor and Respect.”
Muslim leaders in the U.S, reacting to the worldwide solidarity with the satirical newspaper that published cartoons of Islam’s founder, said they hoped the event would be the beginning of a “movement” to “defend Prophet Muhammad” and “defeat Islamophobia.”
A SWAT team member at the entrance to the ballroom where the Muhammad Art and Cartoon Contest was held Sunday in Garland, Texas (WND photo)
Two French-born Muslims carried out the Charlie Hebdo massacre, declaring their intent to “avenge the prophet.” Eleven Charlie Hebdo staff members were killed.
The event Sunday featured a keynote by Wilders, who is regarded by the organizers of “Stand With the Prophet” as one of the world’s worst fomenters of “Islamophobia.”
Wilders told the Texas crowd he doesn’t hate Muslims but believes Islam is an existential threat to Western civilization and the “Islamization” of the West, primarily through immigration, should be aggressively opposed.
He commended the approximately 200 people in attendance for standing for free speech, greeting them with the familiar slogan “Don’t mess with Texas.”
Geert Wilders speaks to a welcoming crowd Sunday night in Garland, Texas (WND photo).
“Everybody present here tonight deserves respect just for being here,” he said.
“The statement of every single person in this room is very clear,” said Wilders. “We will never allow barbarism. We will never allow Islam to rob us of our freedom of speech. Never.”
As WND reported Thursday, three U.S. congressmen urged Secretary of State John Kerry and Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson to deny Wilders a visa ahead of his visit to the U.S. this week, charging alleged ongoing “participation in inciting anti-Muslim aggression and violence.”
Wilders has been under constant security protection since November 2004, when two North African Muslims were accused of planning to murder him and another outspoken critic of Islam in the parliament, Ayaan Hirsi Ali. The Netherlands provides him with a security detail of up to six police officers, he wears a bulletproof vest, lives in a safe house and is escorted to work at the Dutch Parliament in an armored vehicle.
Free society at stake
Prior to the Garland event, artnet news editor Sarah Cascone wrote in a piece published by the Huffington Post that the Muhammad contest it “shameless Muslim-baiting.
Robert Spencer Sunday night in Garland, Texas (WND photo).
But Spencer contends that few people seem to grasp that the very foundation of what makes for a free society is at stake.
WND asked him before the event if there was a way to accomplish his aims without being so provocative.
“No,” he replied. “And the reason for that is because this has become the flashpoint for the defense of the freedom of speech. These cartoons are offensive to Islam, and there is a death penalty for those who blaspheme against Mohammad. The jihadis believe that these cartoons cross the line and those who draw them and publicize them have to be killed.
“If we believe in free speech in a free society, then we have to stand up for the right of people to offend Muslims or even subject Islam to mockery. If it were anything else, it would be the same,” he said.
He noted that after the Charlie Hebdo massacre, the jihadists went to a kosher supermarket and killed Jews.
“What have the Jews done to provoke the Muslims?” he asked. “They were Jews.”
Police surveillance tower set up on Curtis Culwell Center in Garland, Texas, Sunday (WND photo).
“So, they’re supposed to stop being Jews, what next? Well, I suppose pork and alcohol will then go. When does the Shariah compliance stop?”
“So, we’re drawing a line now,” he said, noting that in a free society people can have differing views and be offended without resorting to violence.
The risks that come with holding such and event are necessary he said.
“This goes back to the founding principles of this nation, ‘Give me liberty or give me death,’ and, ‘For these great principles we pledge our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.’”
“If were not willing to stand for these truths and these principles that make for a free society, then we’ll lose our free society,” Spencer said. “And if we’re not willing to stand even when the risks are as high as life and death, the death is what we’re going to get, anyway.”
Geller mobilized about 2,000 people to protest the “Stand With the Prophet” event in January.
Pamela Geller Sunday night in Garland, Texas (WND photo)
She said the aim of her event Sunday was “precisely to show that we will not be cowed into silence by this violent intimidation.”
“That is a crucial stand to take as Islamist assaults on the freedom of speech, our most fundamental freedom, are growing more insistent.”
In 2010, she organized a group she estimates was 5,000-strong to march on the site of the proposed “Ground Zero Mosque” near the World Trade Center. The project eventually was canceled.
The ADI art contest mirrored Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten’s publication in 2005 of editorial cartoons satirizing Muhammad, which prompted protests throughout the Middle East.
Bosch Fawstin, the winner of the $10,000 prize at the Muhammad art contest, is a former Muslim (WND photo)
Charlie Hebdo cartoonist Renald Luzier, who designed the front page of the magazine that appeared after the Paris attacks, announced last week he will no longer draw Muhammad.
He insists “the terrorists didn’t win,” explaining that drawing Muhammad “no longer interests me.”
A week after the Charlie Hebdo massacre, Australian artist Larry Pickering was put under police protection after threats arose in response to his depiction of Muhammad roasting on a spit as a pig.
In Belgium, a museum canceled an exhibition honoring the murdered Charlie Hebdo cartoonists, citing security concerns.
In February, Swedish artist Lars Vilks, who has faced numerous death threats for caricaturing Muhammad, was whisked away from a free-speech event in Copenhagen called “Art, blasphemy and freedom of expression” after shots were fired. Just hours later, a second shooting outside a Copenhagen synagogue left two dead and five police officers wounded.
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