Anti-Free Speech Extremists at Southern Poverty Law Center Will Add an Artist to its "Hate Group" List

By Weasel Zippers

Gotta love Bosch Fawstin’s reaction to the SPLC: “Go for it.”

(Reuters) – For the cartoonist whose portrait of Mohammad won a Texas contest, the police killing of two gunmen outside the meeting place was justice.

“They came to kill us and died for it. Justice,” artist Bosch Fawstin tweeted on Monday.

Fawstin’s winning entry depicts a sword-wielding Prophet in a turban shouting, “You can’t draw me.” In reply, a cartoon bubble portrays the artist, his hand grasping a pencil, as saying, “That’s why I draw you.”

The Southern Poverty Law Center, which includes AFDI on its annual list of U.S. hate groups, plans to add Fawstin to its 2016 report, Heidi Beirich, director of the tracking effort, told Reuters on Monday.

She said he would have been listed previously, but the center did not know Fawstin’s location. The organization has since learned that his website is registered in New York City.

“He’s like the artist of the movement,” Beirich said. “His views, they are hate views.” She said his website is “virulently ugly” in its anti-Muslim views.

When reached by phone on Monday night, Fawstin said Sunday’s incident made him fear for his safety, but he would continue his work.

“It definitely is concerning. You do your work and people out there want to kill you for it,” he said. “I understand the threat, but I’m not going to be cowed by it. I still intend to go up there and I still intend to speak out.”

Fawstin, who said he is atheist, laughed when asked about the law center’s report: “So they want to put a cartoonist on there who doesn’t act out violently? Go for it.”

Fawstin’s winning cartoon:

By Weasel Zippers