Recently a disabled US Army vet was stopped by a manager at a Florida skydiving center and asked to cover up his tattoo because another skydiving customer – a Qatari military officer – was offended. The tattoo said in Arabic, “Infidel.”
Now it might seem to you that this is no big deal, that we can all just keep the peace and enjoy a great day of skydiving if the US Army vet just covers up his tattoo with a piece of duct tape or clothing. But this is not about keeping the peace.
This is about free speech. Whether the Army vet was asked to leave or left on his own accord to take his business elsewhere is up for speculation, but one thing is NOT: The offended Qatari officer wanted to silence the US Army vet’s free speech, and it worked.
Guy Rodgers, the Executive Director of Act For America, interviewed the skydiving manager after the incident. Here is an excerpt from his article:
I asked the manager if she ever considered going to the Qatari officer and calmly saying something like, “I’m sorry you’re offended, but here in America people say and do things all the time that offend others. And that’s protected speech under our first amendment.”
She said she never talked to the Qatari officer, that “it never got that far.” The reason it didn’t is because the manager’s first—and only—response was to deal with the vet, not talk to the Muslim.
This tiny response is summed up in a line from Henry Ducard in Batman Begins:
Criminals thrive on the indulgence of society’s understanding.
And in Islam it is a crime to insult Islam. In many Islamic countries, you can be jailed for YEARS for insulting Islam or Mohammed. But not here in the United States of America. “Silence, infidel!” is an act of war on our First Amendment rights. We have the right to free speech – the right that secures all other rights – and to cover this up for the sake of “peace” is to subjugate yourself to a religion that professes hundreds of times over in its sacred writings to become dominant to all other religions by any means. I will not be silent, and neither should you.
ACT! Seattle for America 