Organizer of armed protest outside of Phoenix mosque admits that he is playing right into the hands of ISIS.

Courtesy of Raw Story:  

CNN host Anderson Cooper pushed the ex-Marine Corps member on Thursday who organized what he insists is a non-violent protest at a Phoenix mosque supporting “freedom of speech.” 

“You don’t think bringing guns to a mosque while families are praying inside, wearing t-shirts that say ‘F Islam’ and shouting whatever it is you’re going to shot at them, as they come and as they go — you don’t think that’s promoting violence at all?” Cooper asked Jon Ritzheimer, who has promoted the event by announcing a “Draw Muhammed” contest, which would violate Islamic teachings banning depictions of the Muslim prophet. 

“I think the whole thing — the cartoon contest, especially — I think it’s stupid and ridiculous,” Ritzheimer conceded. “But it’s what needs to take place in order to expose the true colors of Islam.”

After quite a bit of back and forth Anderson Cooper corners Mr. Ritzheimer and asks him this:  

“Aren’t you playing into their hands?” Cooper asked Ritzheimer, following up on Mudd’s point. 

“Isn’t this exactly the reaction and the message that terrorists want?” 

“Sure,” Ritzheimer said. 

“So you’re playing into ISIS and al Qaeda hands,” Cooper said. “Do you feel good about that?” 

“I’m just doing what I have to do to make sure that my children have a good future,” Ritzheimer replied.

I have NO idea how attempting to incite a violent reaction is going to help this man protect his children.

And in fact it must not have, because this protest took place yesterday, and though there was no violence Ritzheimer has become so terrified from death threats that he claimed to have received that he has now gone into hiding. 

And once again I completely support the idea of exercising freedom of speech in this country, and challenging ALL religions, but this, much like the Pam Gellar event from before, is nothing more than a publicity stunt and an attempt to anger people into doing something violent in order to prove a point.

Here is how Hermant Mehta, the Friendly Atheist, describes his feelings: 

I don’t support this event. I hope you don’t either. Ritzheimer has no obligation to listen to me, but I can at least condemn his actions. There’s no higher principle at work here. If there was, he wouldn’t need to resort to these shock-jock tactics. The only thing he’ll accomplish is pissing off Muslims (and plenty of non-Muslims) without creating the conversation he claims this is really all about.

That's pretty much the page I am on as well. 

Of course we should not allow ourselves to be intimidated by threats of violence, but we should also not lower ourselves to trolling extremists in the hopes they will injure or kill somebody in order to attract media attention.