Jihad against free speech--Memphis style

Local Tennessee Muslims waged a little jihad of their own a few weeks back. Their target was a speech by Brigitte Gabriel at the University of Memphis. Today Ms. Gabriel describes her surprise at the reception in a piece in the American Thinker:

Who would have expected that in the home of the Beale Street Blues, W.C. Handy and Elvis, I would be confronted by Muslims trying to muzzle my free speech and perhaps all of us?

For sure, but it's a new world. Muslims are becoming more prominent in the Memphis area, if we can assume head garb as reasonable identification. I will even confess to staring at one such man in the parking lot of Wal Mart recently, but only because it's rare to see a turban in the south. He gave me a sort of "Hassan chop" look, but staring is rude and I would have apologized had we actually conversed. Additionally, seeing Muslim women in headscarves driving around in Chevy Silverados is strange, but something I'll have to get used to.

For context on Ms. Gabriel's speech, here is the announcement, and here's what Mr. Patterson allegedly sent out via email, along with some comments. Keep in mind this talk was at the behest of the Judaic Studies department. I'm not aware of any local problems, but there's a sizable Jewish community in Memphis so it wouldn't be surprising to learn there are some tensions as the Muslim population grows.

Ms. Gabriel goes on to illustrate the attempted crushing of dissent when her U of M speech was announced:

When news about my appearance spread, the Muslim community both on and off campus launched a full-scale campaign to stop my lecture. They demanded that Dr. Patterson cancel my speech. E-mails flooded the University of Memphis administration and Dr. Patterson from Muslim students on campus and Muslims in the community and mosques

When speech day came these same true seekers of democracy then tried to disrupt the event by protesting that questions would be relegated to index cards, not audience participation. Perhaps someone should have asked if this would have been possible under Shar'ia?

She also touched on the recent story about a potential terrorist and former U of M student, Mahmoud Maawad. But in the end, Ms. Gabriel got through her speech intact and survived to write about it:

At the end of the lecture the Muslims immediately in front swarmed over me questioning and intimidating. Police officers quickly moved in and pulled me out straight to the police cars as the enraged Muslims started shouting.

So, with all this going on you might wonder what our local paper had to say on the subject. I did too, but I'm still trying to find the story.

RADIO INTERVIEW 4/11/06

Ms. Gabriel was on WREC radio with Mike Fleming this afternoon. She gave a short speech then answered questions from Mike and the audience with rather easy dispatch. One of her central points was that modern Muslims should reject the specific passages in the Qu'ran that seem to underpin modern Islamoterrorism, and she recommended listeners to this site for more details, one I'm not familiar with. She's an energetic speaker who holds her position quite well, and I'm gonna try to catch her next talk (if they allow her back).