ISIS claims responsibility for the attack on Muhammad Cartoon contest in Texas. Yahoo/Reuters.

Crime scene inspectors gather evidence at the scene of the crime. Yahoo/Reuters. 

ISIS has taken responsibility for the unsuccessful attack on a Muhammad cartoon contest in Texas that ended with both attackers killed. Yahoo/Reuters. The official radio station for ISIS, Al Bayan, claimed that "two soldiers of the caliphate" carried out the attack. No evidence was made for the claim and ISIS has a history of taking credit for terrorist attacks they had little to nothing to do with. It is also unclear if the two attackers received any support from ISIS or if they just pledged allegiance to the group. The suspects, Elton Stimpson and Nadir Soofi opened fire on a security guard at the event and were almost immediately shot by a police officer. ISIS followers on twitter celebrated the attack. 

The winning drawing in the contest by Bosch Fawstin. 

My Comment:

As always, I think it is important to show what the people that want to kill over cartoons are so upset by. I understand there is a tiny bit of risk involved in posting the above cartoon but free speech is important. And I think that Fawstin is right with his cartoon. The mere fact that there are people willing to kill over depictions of Muhammad means that we must depict Muhammad in anyway we feel necessary. Sure, it is offensive to Muslims. But as long as people are willing to kill over a drawing, the drawings must exist. Iconoclasm has no place in the modern world and any attempts to censor or attack people because they choose to express themselves must be fought. 

I'd draw my own image of Muhammad but most 3 year olds have more artistic talent then I have... I think even ISIS would be more offended by my utter lack of artistic talent then any depiction of Muhammad... 

I also think it is hilarious that ISIS is celebrating this attack as some kind of great victory. This was a complete failure pulled off by a couple of morons that didn't even think that there might be security at this kind of event. All they accomplished was slightly wounding a security guard. And they died for it. 

The entire purpose of terrorism is to strike fear into the hearts of your enemies. I'm not afraid of these morons at all. I'm laughing at them. They failed at the most basic rule of warfare, hit your enemy where he is weak. And they made our police and security services (at least locally) look like slick professionals. Far from terror, I felt a mixture of humor and relief. If these are the best that ISIS can inspire then we really don't have all that much to worry about, at least in America. 

Of course, that's assuming that ISIS actually had anything to do with this attack. I don't know if these guys had any help and I am sure the FBI is looking into it right now. If they did then this was even more of a joke then it was already was, but I think it is more likely that they just did this on their own. My guess is that someone bought their rifles for them though, and those straw buyers need to be found and prosecuted. 

The attackers accomplished something else. They really helped the people that put on this show prove their argument. I've heard a lot of noise from the liberal media about how the people put on this show were bigots. Even if that is true, and it may be in some cases, these people did absolutely nothing wrong. There is a lot of hand wringing and flip-flopping among the left on this issue. After all, they like Muslims in general a lot more then they like the typically right wing critics of Islam. 

But freedom of speech is all about protecting views and ideas you don't like. That's why we let  people like the Westboro Baptist Church, and the KKK say what they want to say. Not because we agree with them, but because we know if they get their views and ideas banned it is only a matter of time that everyone else's views are banned too. And when it comes to Radical Islam, quite possibly the defining problem of the 21st century, all voices need to be heard. Even the ones you don't like. Especially the ones you don't like. 

I find Pamela Geller's (the woman that ran the contest) views on Islam to be unfair and biased. No group is completely evil and pretty much everyone on earth thinks they are the good guy. I try to distinguish between Radical Islam, which I spend a great deal of time criticizing, and regular Islam, which I mostly leave alone. Geller does not. That's a sign of close mindedness and bad arguments.

But that's just it. In America bad arguments get counterarguments, never bullets. And the people that put on this contest were completely right to express themselves. The threat of violence should have no power over free people. And even if the left hates this kind of speech and would like to, at least in principle, see it banned in order to please Muslims, it won't happen in America. Ever. So the terrorists are just going to have to deal with it. Or die for nothing like Elton Stimpson and Nadir Soofi did.