Former Illinois Congressman Joe Walsh, now a talk show host in the Chicago area, let loose with an anti-Islam rant for the ages, damning all Muslims and their religion, and daring Attorney General Loretta Lynch to carry through with her threat to arrest those who use “violent talk” against Muslims.
I think Islam has a real freaking problem, alright?” Former Illinois Rep. Joe Walsh said in a video posted to his Facebook page. “There is a cancer in Islam, and if they’re not going to learn to assimilate, I don’t want them in this country.”
You got a problem, Loretta Lynch, with me saying that? Then throw me in jail,” Walsh, a conservative talk show host, argued. “I think Islam is evil. I think Islam has a huge problem. I think most Muslims around the world are not compatible with American values. I don’t want them here.”
Walsh continued to slam Lynch in his video for the comments she made at Muslim Advocate’s 10th anniversary dinner one day after law enforcement officials say two people opened fire at a holiday party in San Bernardino, California, leaving 14 people dead and more than one dozen injured. According to reports, the wife pledged allegiance to the Islamic State on her Facebook page just moments before the attack.
“When we talk about the First Amendment we [must] make it clear that actions predicated on violent talk are not American. They are not who we are, they are not what we do, and they will be prosecuted,” Lynch said at the banquet. “My message not just to the Muslim community but to all Americans is: we cannot give in to the fear that these backlashes are really based on.”
Walsh, who now hosts his own radio program, served in Congress from 2011 to 2013.
In text that included some stronger language accompanying his video, which has been viewed more than 110,000 times as of Saturday morning, Walsh continued to argue that “most Muslims around the world are terrorists, support terrorism and/or support Sharia Law.”
“Any Muslim that is a terrorist or supports terrorism should be killed,” Walsh wrote. “If ‘Moderate’ Muslims don’t speak out against terrorism, they are our enemy and we should call them out and kick them out of this country.”
“Is that ‘anti-Muslim rhetoric’ that ‘edges toward violence,’” he continued. “Go ahead and prosecute me. I dare you.”
Offensive, uninformed, ignorant, bigoted — I’ve got to hand it to Walsh. If his intent was to test the resolve of the highest-ranking law enforcement officer in the country to prosecute someone for what he says or thinks, he nailed it.
For in the end, it is not the tolerant, respectful words that need protection. It is the rancid rants of haters like Walsh that the First Amendment was designed to shield. To hold hostage free speech to the subjective whims of a politically correct harridan like Lynch is to abandon our Constitutional rights to those who haven’t a clue of their real meaning.
Suppose someone goes out tomorrow and shoots up a mosque. How could Lynch be serious about proving that it was Walsh’s — or anyone else’s — ugly hate speech that inspired it? This is the sort of thing that would happen in North Korea or Cuba. In order to get at a regime opponent, the oppressors trump up charges that their words caused violence. Not only is it an effective tactic at eliminating opposition, it also serves to dampen free speech for the rest.
Lynch has no business being in a position of power in government. She may be qualified to be a liberal commentator on MSNBC, but not attorney general of the United States.
As for Walsh, let him spout. If his listeners choose to abandon him by switching the radio dial, his employers will take corrective action.
They don’t need Loretta Lynch telling them what to say or think.
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