On May 21, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty interviewed one of the administrators of the Facebook group “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day!”

In the interview, it becomes clear that the motive of the creators of the EDMD group was to incite anger among Muslims across the world. Of course, that is not the official mission. In his own words, the 28-year-old administrator, using the pseudonym Andy Freiheit, described the group’s motivations as “a response against the self-censoring of artists due to Muslim threats.”

Protesting against violence and death threats is not something to condemn. But the logic in this man’s argument is almost squat. While the hypocrisy is in abundance.

He and the other proponents of the infamous FB group are actively inciting violence. In the interview, this Facebook group administrator confesses that he knows what the reactions of some Muslims will be; he just wants to show the world (as if the world isn’t aware of the fallout). Or perhaps, he is the type who sticks his hand in an open flame every now and then to remind himself that fire and unprotected skin aren’t friends.

Freheit said:

“We encourage our members to draw humorous and creative depictions of Muhammad. And since we know that many moderate Muslims will also get offended by the depictions, instead of the hateful ones that will generate more anger, we want to make easy-going depictions instead of the hateful ones many people are making. Well, the overreactions many Muslim extremists showed the world in 2006 [during the Danish caricature furore] were despicable and cannot by defended by the Koran, Muhammad [PBUH], or Allah.”

Moreover, his personal rejection of accountability and his apathy towards likely negative consequences (which he displays is many places throughout the interview) is appalling.

“We don’t have the capacity to watch every single photo [of a cartoon]. And if it’s really, really offensive, I hope people report it so they can get removed. . .

We have a standard, but we just can’t watch through every photo. We just don’t have the time or capacity to do it. So there’s a lot of photos that get uploaded that are really, really offensive, and we just have to apologize. If you watch the main site, the comments from the administrators, they haven’t written anything directly offensive – the last week at least. We had some moderators who started with hate speech, but they got kicked out.”

This is an effective strategy taken right out of the Bush-era neoconservative playbook: i) fabricate narrative and get ball rolling; ii) retract statements and apologize after agenda (and chaos) achieved.

And if violent protests lead to death, Freiheit justifies the blood this way:

“If those guys [angry protesters against the drawings] kill anyone, then that’s not something we’ve done. That’s something we just have to put forward and show people.”

So, his productive position is to basically say, “Let’s protest the violence that we are inciting.”

Moreover, he and his fellow administrators carefully hide their identities to protect themselves (because they know they will be threatened) but are okay with the fact that other people will pay with their lives during this border-less street war.

Freihet said:

“I actually think they will kill someone…. Someone will…make [someone] a scapegoat or whatever. . .  But we’ve come to the conclusion that if someone is killed, then we’re not to blame.”

The modus operandi of the EDMD group is perfectly mimicked in the comments of one reader on the RFE website who requested people to follow his lead: he claims he wrapped a pork chop in a forbidden drawing of the Prophet (PBUH) and sent the package to the Pakistani Ambassador in Berlin.

Here are my questions to you and your supporters, Mr Freiheit:

How is hateful protest designed to offend and anger any more enlightened or civilised than the violent protest that it knows it will create?

Isn’t there a more productive way to lodge your protest, one that involves dialogue instead of alienation?

The interview on RFE can be viewed here.