Manchester:


[From the Comments]

Zitat

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Published on Jun 5, 2013

An event sponsored by the American Muslim Advisory Council of Tennessee after a local govt official posted something on Facebook that offended local Muslims. Context for the meeting is that the U.S. federal prosecutor for the eastern district of Tennessee, Bill Killian, issued a statement that seemed to imply that some speech published on social media could be prosecuted as a hate crime. Killian's implied threat to prosecute people who publish things on social media that insult Muslims generated a wave of push-back on talk radio and conservative websites, and resulted in an overflow crowd of more than 600 people at this event on June 4, 2013, at a public conference center in Manchester, TN.

I videotaped the event from a spot along the wall about halfway back in the room, so the audio is likely to accentuate the crowd noise. The video focuses on the speakers and doesn't show most of the crowd, but I can tell you that most of the crowd was not being rude and heckling the speakers. Unfortunately, because of the location and limitations of my small video camera, the audio likely accentuates the crowd noise.

Below are links to some media reports on the event. YouTube doesn't allow posting long comments so I don't have space here to post my own thoughts - so I have posted my report and commentary on the Manchester event on my Facebook page. Here is the link: https://www.facebook.com/notes/bill-h...

Forum on civil rights sparks protest rally for free speech - WKRN TV
http://www.wkrn.com/story/22503524/fo...

Protesters pack Muslim-sponsored meeting on social media 'hate speech' crackdown - Twitchy.com
http://www.twitchy.com/2013/06/04/pro...

Muslim group's TN forum with feds disrupted by heckling - Tennessean http://www.tennessean.com/article/201...

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