Tennessee hecklers disrupt First Amendment event

From TPM:

A public discussion held on the Muslim faith and the First Amendment in Manchester, Tennessee turned to chaos on Tuesday after several hundred people in attendance jeered and heckled a U.S. attorney and an FBI official who spoke about constitutional protections for various forms of speech.

“I came here because I wanted to learn something … but I couldn’t hear because the audience was so disrespectful,” one attendee complained to the Tenneseean. “I cried when I got here. It makes me really sad especially because these people say they’re Christians. The God I worship doesn’t teach hate.”

The event, sponsored by the American Muslim Advisory Council, also drew scores of protesters outside who began to yell “communist,” “socialist” and “Muslim” at law enforcement officials after the venue reached full capacity.

Of course, the god those Christians worship does teach hate. That's the thing about faith-based thinking. Since it's not about evidence, you can believe anything you want to believe. So if you hate other people, so does your 'God.'

But just think about it. This was a meeting about the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, not about Sharia law.

And did you hear the speaker in that video talking about how the American Muslim Council "continues to be a partner with us in addressing the challenges we all face in keeping our country safe..."? Yeah, it was hard to hear over the heckling. In fact, I couldn't hear the last part of his sentence at all.

Nice, isn't it? We've got American Muslims working with the FBI to defend America,... and this is the treatment they get from ignorant rednecks.

Now, I think Islam is wrong, just as I think Christianity is wrong. No religion has convinced me that its claims are true, and certainly not that faith is a reliable way to distinguish reality from delusion and wishful-thinking. But I support your right to believe, or disbelieve, whatever you want.

And that very definitely applies as much to Muslims as to everyone else.

Oh, and note that part about yelling "communist" at cops. That's rather appropriate, in a weird way, because this is just like the anti-communist hysteria of the 1950s. Haven't these lunatics learned anything since then?

But the notorious Joe McCarthy is probably still their hero, huh?