(This post may contain disputed claims. We make no assertions as to the validity of the information presented by our Opinion Columnist. We are an opinion blog, not a traditional news outlet, and this post should be treated as such. Enjoy.)A California man was forced to leave a coffee shop when a barista confronted him for asking a veiled Muslim woman a “racist” question.
The war on speech rages. In an apparent attempt to control thought, social justice warriors are cracking down on offensive speech — but only when it transgresses against the privileged minorities.
Regardless of whether the Muslim minority is right or wrong, the left has rushed to its defense by doxing, ostracizing, and relentlessly punishing those who dare speak negatively about Islam or its adherents. For one such man, this was exactly the case after he asked a Muslim woman an offensive question.
In an encounter captured on video, an unidentified man turns to a veiled Muslim woman, who has been identified as Kathleen “Amina” Deady, in the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf cafe in Riverside, California, before asking her a question that earned him the boot. The moment that prompted the barista to kick out the male customer came when he asked the niqab-wearing woman, “Is this Halloween or something?” according to NBC Chicago.
Of course, the man quickly realized that he had committed the unforgivable crime of offending a Muslim the moment Deady tells him he’s committed “hate speech.” Soon, others are joining her in a bid to shut down the man’s offensive speech, accusing him of racism, despite his obvious inability to identify his target’s race.
“Why would you say that? What’s wrong with me?” the woman responds. “Do you know I’m a Muslim?”
The man indicates that he does and says, “I don’t like that.”
“I don’t like your religion because it says to kill me, and I don’t want to be killed by you. How’s that?” he adds.
“You are committing hate speech,” the woman says.
Determined to silence the offensive man, customer Barry Landau steps in and demands that the “racist” leave the cafe immediately, according to The Washington Post.
“Get out of here! [Expletive] racist,” Landau said. “I said get out of here! Why are you doing this to her?”
“It upset me,” Landau recalled. “Any time you see people explicitly hating people, it’s shocking.”
Moments later, the barista, who identifies herself as the supervisor, tells the man that he will be refused service “because he is disrupting a public place and being very racist.” Soon after, Deady can be heard thanking the barista for her support.
The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf released a statement saying the company “is fully committed to ensuring the wellness and safety of its customers, team members and business. We have a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to discrimination of any kind, and have the right to refuse service to any person who makes customers or team members feel endangered in any way.”
Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of the incident was the mainstream media’s reaction. In blind defense of Islam, The Washington Post refuted over 100 scriptures in the Quran that command Muslims to slaughter unbelievers by selectively paraphrasing verse 5:32, which says that “if anyone killed a person, it would be as if he killed the whole mankind.” However, upon reading the full verse, one can easily see that this scripture was only intended for the Jews, not Muslims.
Quran 5:32 – For that cause We decreed for the Children of Israel that whosoever killeth a human being for other than manslaughter or corruption in the earth, it shall be as if he had killed all mankind, and whoso saveth the life of one, it shall be as if he had saved the life of all mankind. Our messengers came unto them of old with clear proofs (of Allah’s Sovereignty), but afterwards lo! many of them became prodigals in the earth.
Of course, Deady attempted to turn around the fact that the Quran calls for the murder of innocent non-Muslims by falsely claiming the Bible reveals that Jesus Christ advocated for the murder of his enemies.
“Let’s talk about your Bible,” Deady said. “Do you know in your Bible, Jesus says to bring the people who don’t believe, to kill them?”
Undeniably, the man who confronted the Muslim woman was being incredibly belligerent and rude. He was undoubtedly offensive, vulgar, and judgemental.
However, none of these characteristics are against the law, nor is “hate speech” a crime under U.S. jurisdiction. In fact, our First Amendment was implemented to protect exactly this kind of speech since inoffensive speech needs no protection.
The difference between the right and left is that the right sees obnoxious and offensive people and chooses to engage in civil debate instead of simply shutting them down. The right recognizes the importance of free speech and that all other liberties follow it.
As it stands, conservatives constantly endure hateful and offensive comments from liberals concerning our religion, race, and political affiliation, yet we continue to defend their right to do so because we know our ideas will win.
