The Thomas More Law Center has filed a federal lawsuit over the cancellation of an event held at a public high school here in Michigan earlier this year. According to the complaint, Allegan High School and police officials decided in the middle of an event promoting an anti-Sharia law, while the event was actually going on.
The event was intended to promote two pieces of legislation, one requiring all schools to teach the history of the U.S. and Michigan constitutions and the other to prohibit the use of Sharia law in Michigan courts. It was to feature two primary speakers, Rep. Dave Agema and Kamal Saleem. Saleem claims to be an ex-terrorist, but there is good reason to doubt his story. He’s part of the “OMG, America is on the verge of being taken over by Muslims” brigade.
The police cancelled the event, they say, after they learned that the Muslim Brotherhood has put a $25 million bounty on Saleem’s head. They reasoned that this caused serious public safety concerns that they were not prepared for. The complaint tries to argue that this was completely irrational because Saleem speaks in public all the time at events and “has never experienced an issue with security.” And it implies that there was no bounty. In what appears below, Kevin Jones is Saleem’s bodyguard:
At this time Defendants Boysen and Brummel claim that an “unknown female” approached them, and stated that Kamal Saleem had a $25 million dollar bounty on his head…
When questioned about the $25 million dollar bounty, Kevin Jones stated that the claim started with a rumor that circulated approximately five years prior to the free speech event.
Kevin Jones stated he could not verify the claim.
Kevin Jones further stated that he could not put an amount to the claim, let alone the amount of $25 million dollars.
But then in the very next sentence:
Kevin Jones further stated that there had been death threats directed toward Kamal Saleem from Islamic extremists in the past.
Kevin Jones further stated that in the five years of speaking at events such as the free speech event, Kamal Saleem has never had a single incident—let alone any sort of outbreak of violence.
But several media reports say that the $25 million bounty claim came from Saleem himself, who has used it to give himself credibility — see, I’m so dangerous and such a threat to those evil Muslims that they want me dead. So the claims in this complaint are rather incoherent — he claims there is a $25 million bounty on his head, his bodyguard says that’s just a rumor and he can’t verify the amount but does say there have been death threats made on him. So were the police department’s fears legitimate or not? The complaint seems to want to have it both ways on that issue.
Now, they may well have a case here. The job of the government is to protect the free speech rights of everyone, even in the face of possible violence. If the KKK put a bounty on the head of some liberal politician, that would not mean the government can cancel all speaking events involving that person in order to protect public safety; if that was the case, all it would take is a violent threat in order to shut down a person’s ability to speak publicly and the First Amendment would be meaningless and held hostage to the whims of crazy people. So they may very well win this case on those entirely legitimate grounds.
But that’s not the end of the issue. They aren’t just suing the police, they’re also suing CAIR Michigan and People for the American Way. Why? Because those groups sent a letter to the school that hosted the event telling them that Saleem is apparently a fraud, a claim for which there is much evidence. Thus, the complaint says, they engaged in “tortious interference” of a contract for the event. But that’s pretty silly and those defendants are almost certain to be dropped from the case after a motion from their attorneys. The school and the local police may well be liable for their actions here, but CAIR and PFAW are not. Indeed, they were merely exercising their free speech rights in the matter.
But it gets worse. In an email promoting the lawsuit and, of course, seeking contributions, TMLC director Richard Thompson tries to tie all this to Obama:
Richard Thompson, President and Chief Counsel of the Law Center commented, “It’s amazing how much clout CAIR has with the political establishment of both parties in Lansing and throughout Michigan and the nation. This, despite the fact that CAIR has its roots in the Muslim Brotherhood, was listed as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation trial, and the FBI’s former chief of counterterrorism, noted that CAIR, its leaders, and its activities effectively give aid to international terrorist groups.”
Continued Thompson, “Press accounts make it clear that an indictment naming CAIR as a defendant in the Holy Land Foundation trial was squelched by Attorney General Holder’s office despite vehement objections by FBI agents and the federal prosecutors in Dallas.”
That last part is a lie. How do I know that? Because the trial in the case he is referring to took place in November, 2008, before Obama and Holder were in office. The indictment was handed down long before they were there, of course. So Holder had nothing at all to do with the indictment, trial or ruling in the case (the ruling came down in May, 2009). But it’s a convenient lie, one that will no doubt keep the money flowing in from the ignorant rubes.
13 comments
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slc1
May 3, 2012 at 1:21 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Gee, Richard Thompson caught in a lie. What a surprise. This is the same Richard Thompson who claimed in the Dover case that religion had nothing to do with ID and then, when the verdict came down, accused the judge of suppressing religious freedom.
raven
May 3, 2012 at 1:25 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Sounds like they are desperate for money.
A lot of these xian defender organizations look like mostly just scams.
1. Bill Donohue and the Catholic league.
2. The ACLJ.
3. Now we can add Thomas More.
About what you could expect for an organization named after a murderer. Saint Thomas More was an anti-Protestant heretic hunter who had at least 6 heretics burned at the stake.
Tyndale’s crime was translating the bible into English.
slc1
May 3, 2012 at 1:27 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Re raven @ #2
Is Mr. raven claiming that the movie, “A Man for all Seasons,” was manure? What a revolting development.
Deen
May 3, 2012 at 1:35 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
True, but the argument from the police isn’t that they were unwilling to protect Saleem’s free speech, but that they couldn’t guarantee people’s safety, because they just found out they were supposed to have prepared for securing a target with a $25 million bounty, and they were simply unequipped to deal with that sort of threat level. If they really only just found out, and took the bounty at face value, maybe canceling actually was the responsible thing to do.
Of course, the police may still be in the wrong for not doing their homework beforehand, or they should have known better than to take the bounty serious. Assuming the police is honest about its reasons to cancel the event to begin with, of course, which isn’t really a certainty anymore, is it?
Leo
May 3, 2012 at 1:45 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Well, when you put this together with your earlier comment, Ed, that “They reasoned that this caused serious public safety concerns that they were not prepared for,” I wouldn’t quite reach that above conclusion. They might prepare better for some people than others. Which is still a problem, I grant. Then freedom of speech ends up depending on how good of a job the police do in preparing for an event.
democommie
May 3, 2012 at 1:58 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
“Re raven @ #2
Is Mr. raven claiming that the movie, “A Man for all Seasons,” was manure? What a revolting development.”
Well, that depends; what does IMDB have to say about it? ;>)
Reginald Selkirk
May 3, 2012 at 2:00 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
But that doesn’t make any sense. If he had himself whacked, how would he be able to pay off the bounty?
slc1
May 3, 2012 at 2:09 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Re democommie
I saw the movie a million years ago and my impression was that Thomas More was one of the good guys. Certainly, his burning at the stake proclivities were absent from the movie. By the way, a masterful performance by Paul Scofield.
jjgdenisrobert
May 3, 2012 at 2:16 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
This is how these people work: “was squelched by Attorney General Holder’s office”, i.e. the Office of the Attorney General, which is currently occupied by Holder… Guaranteed this is how they’d defend that statement. And to think that we made fun of “it depends on what the meaning of ‘is’ is”.
Rip Steakface
May 3, 2012 at 2:19 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Not sure if you’re being sarcastic or just not parsing it correctly… so I’ll let anyone know that isn’t parsing it correctly either way:
Saleem is claiming that there is a $25 million bounty on his head as a sort of bragging rights – “I’m such a danger to their cause that they’ve put this gigantic hit out on me. Clearly, I’m capable of riling them.”
dean
May 3, 2012 at 3:42 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
After the high school event was shut down the talk was moved to a nearby bowling alley, although (if I remember correctly) only about 50 of the original crowd went to hear him end. Does the fact that he finished his speech have any bearing on this?
Erp
May 3, 2012 at 3:57 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
re democommie
Consider the movie/play as fiction whose characters share the names and perhaps a few traits with real people and judge it on its own merits.
Admittedly few or no political figures in Europe at that time were willing to allow wide religious toleration (the first might have been John Sigismund Zápolya of Hungary in 1568 some 30+ years after More’s death though the Edict of Torda was quickly repealed after he died in 1571).
timgueguen
May 3, 2012 at 6:41 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I wonder if this Richard Thompson is aware of the British guitarist and singer Richard Thompson, who became a devote of Sufism in the early ’70s.