A week after the thwarted terror attack on the “Draw Muhammad” cartoon contest in Garland, Texas, a liberal comedian has announced a contest of his own.
Dean Obeidallah, who is also a liberal commentator and regular guest on MSNBC, announced that he is launching a “Draw Your Favorite Islamophobe” contest this Saturday on his Sirius XM radio show.
“Do you know how to draw, even just stick figures? Do you hate bigotry? Then I hope you enter,” Obeidallah, who is a Muslim of Palestinian-Italian descent, wrote on his website. “You can draw a cartoon or image of any person or group that is actively stoking flames of hate towards Muslims.”
Draw your favorite Islamophobe contest! Here are details- its a REAL contest I launched with prizes. Hope u enter! http://t.co/4ElSv2dLfQ
— Dean Obeidallah (@Deanofcomedy) May 11, 2015
Poor Dean Obeidallah. He still has no idea why counter-jihadist blogger Pamela Geller held the “Draw Mohammed” cartoon contest and art exhibit. He seems to think he’s sticking it to the “haters” by holding his own contest mirroring theirs. But his contest does not mirror the “Draw Mohammed” contest. His contest is motivated by a desire to insult and ridicule the critics of radical Islam — or as he calls them, “Islamophobes.”
Pamela Geller’s motive, as she has repeated in about 250 interviews since the attack, was not to insult a religion — it was to defend freedom of speech.
In an interview with Newsweek, Geller said, “if they had announced that they were going to kill non-Muslims for not obeying any other element of Shariah law, we would have made our stand on that. They are trying to intimidate free people into submitting to Shariah blasphemy laws by killing over the cartoons, so it was over the cartoons that we had to make a stand.”
By holding his own contest hitting back at “Islamophobes,” Obeidallah is suggesting that he believes the motivating factor behind Geller’s contest was to ridicule all Muslims. But he couldn’t be more off the mark if he tried. Geller’s event was designed to stand up for free speech while lampooning those who would kill over a cartoon.
As “investiblogger” for The Blaze John Cardillo noted on Twitter, “This gutless moron mocks people who won’t try to kill him for mocking those who will.”
Obeidallah wrote at his website:
Obviously this contest is inspired by anti-Muslim activist Pam Geller’s “draw the Prophet Mohammed” contest in Garland, Texas held last week. On Saturday’s show we discussed the issue with Alia Salem from the Dallas Chapter of CAIR and Amani Al-Khatahtbeh of Muslim Girl.net on the best way to counter the haters while still respecting freedom of expression.
Those who have seen the thought-provoking “Draw Mohammed” cartoons know that there is nothing overtly offensive or profane about them.
But if you want to see what real “haters” are capable of, wait until the “Draw Your Favorite Islamophobe” cartoons come out. Remember: the idea behind these cartoons is not to make a valid political point — the idea is for leftists and Islamists to lash out in anger at their political enemies. Be forewarned. Those cartoons will be offensive and ugly in every sense of the word.
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