Is it now illegal for Jews to defend themselves against Muslims in New York City? Is it illegal to claim that the Islamic religion is inherently violent and perverted? That seems to be the message from New York Attorney General Letitia James.
After some two and a half years of antisemitic harassment and pro-Hamas protests in New York, and after the election of a blatantly pro-jihad and anti-Israel mayor of NYC, Big Tish is most worried that a Jewish group used what she considered to be hateful language against Muslims. Because, as we know, Jewish terrorism against innocent Muslims is such a massive problem. Oh, wait…it’s the other way around.
James tried to cover her extremely large backside in a press release by citing the highly biased Anti-Defamation League to label Betar an “extremist group.” She asserted Betar conducted “violence, harassment, and intimidation against Arab, Muslim, and Jewish New Yorkers” and “repeatedly targeted individuals based on religion and national origin.” Her grandest proofs of this are that Betar tried to “disrupt” anti-Israel, pro-Hamas protests, that Betar members referred to keffiyehs as “rape rags,” and that Betar supposedly expressed hatred against Gazans and a desire for bigger strikes there.
The problem is that most of that is absolutely First Amendment-protected free speech, and since James did not quote any social media posts in full, it is difficult to assess whether any of those posts crossed the line from free speech into explicit calls for targeted deaths of civilians. Certainly accusing Muslims of hating America is free speech. It is in fact much more free speech than many of the chants from anti-Israel protesters, such as “from the river to the sea,” which is a call for genocide.
James also accused Betar of threatening to report individuals to authorities for deportation and to send lists of anti-Israel Jews to foreign authorities. Without a more reliable source than James for confirmation, I cannot comment on that. James is furious that Betar members showed up to confront pro-Hamas crazies while armed, asserted that they harassed pro-Hamas protesters without provocation (again, I have not independently confirmed this), and claimed that in one instance the confrontations even grew physically violent.
Since I have not researched Betar, I cannot state for certain that they did not sometimes break the law, or engage in targeted harassment, but I can state that there has been an absolute plague of antisemitic violence and harassment in New York in the last couple of years, fueled by such politicians as NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani. I can also say for certain that some of James’s top proofs for Betar’s supposed guilt, some of the reasons she prominently featured for cracking down on them, are most certainly constitutionally protected free speech. And that has much wider implications than one group that may or may not be extremist and dangerous.
If it is now illegal in New York to call keffiyehs “rape rags,” referring to the continual connection between Palestinian terrorists and mass rape of Israeli women and children, or if it is illegal to accuse a certain religion of fueling hatred against America, that apparently means Islam is now the state-protected religion in New York. It is free speech to criticize Muslims just as it is free speech to criticize Christians and Jews, even if the comments are sometimes inaccurate or exaggerated. Furthermore, it is absolutely true that Islam in its a sacred texts and sharia explicitly endorses jihad, rape, sexual slavery, honor killings, and other evils.
As JihadWatch’s Daniel Greenfield explained:
Attorney General Letita James is criminalizing private speech in a private forum. That reflects the weakness of her case against Betar which is long on rhetoric and short on actual crimes…[She is] only able to document three types of illegal activities, these are stealing and burning ‘Palestinian’ flags, pushing beepers at terrorist supporters, and fighting back against pro-Hamas mobs attacking synagogues and Jewish neighborhoods. James does not cite any Betar members arrested for these alleged acts…[James Carlson] was charged with grabbing an Israeli flag from a student and setting it on fire, but the movement and organization were not charged.
Tarek Bazrouk, a Muslim activist in the vicinity of the Columbia pro-terrorist protests, was charged with federal hate crimes after he assaulted several Jewish people, and punched a man in the stomach during an incident where he stole an Israeli flag. He was defended by many of the groups involved in the riots…
Greenfield provides more examples, but you get the point. James only cares when Jews are burning flags, not when Muslims or Islamists are doing so. She also seems to have an issue with Jews protecting synagogues.
Will James go after other groups or individuals that express what she considers to be Islamophobia? Is New York already becoming a sharia state?
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