GARLAND — The American Freedom Defense Initiative is the group behind Sunday's "Draw Muhammad" event at which two gunmen were killed and a police officer was wounded.
On Monday, they were defending their cause, even though drawings of the Muslim prophet are considered offensive by those in that faith.
Bosch Fawstin, the artist who won a $12,500 prize for his controversial caricature of Muhammad, was defiant in his speech Sunday night at the Curtis Culwell Center in Garland.
"We do not live under Islamic law. We draw Muhammad because we will not submit. We draw Muhammad because we can," he said.
Not long after those remarks, two men showed up outside the event center and started shooting. They were gunned down by a Garland policeman.
Fawstin's offered this unapologetic free speech follow-up on his Twitter page Monday: "They came to kill us and died for it. Justice."'
Debate raged on social media Monday about the merits of an exhibition aimed at ridiculing a religious icon.
"I think it was quite irresponsible to have the event", says Dr. Robert Hunt, the director of global theological education program at Southern Methodist University. He believes the organizers of the controversial art contest got exactly what they wanted.
"They had the event explicitly to attract a response from the Muslim community that would prove that Muslims were extremists," Hunt said.
The American Freedom Defense Initiative, which organized Sunday's event, said it did so in the name of constitutional rights, said Pamela Geller, the group's executive director. You may have that name before. She was the face of the opposition to construct a mosque near Ground Zero in 2010.
"We are here for freedom; everything else is smear," Geller said about the Garland event. "We are here for free speech. Everything else is smear."
She told CNN after the shooting that such violence won't stop her group from sponsoring similar events in the future. "I will not abridge my freedoms so as not to offend savages," Geller said. "Freedom of speech is under violent assault here."
"We have a clash of civilizations," observed Buck Revell, a local terrorism expert and former head of the Dallas FBI office. "The radical element of Islam doesn't believe we have the right to exercise free speech."
But SMU's Hunt argues this wasn't a win for free speech, but rather a headline-grabber for an organization he believes profits from selling hate. He thinks the showdown that ended in a shootout will actually lead to more confrontational gatherings and more violent responses.
"I fear it will inspire them," he said. "There are always people out there looking for their five seconds of fame, even if it ends in a bullet."
USA TODAY contributed to this report
