Texas Police Kill Two Gunmen at Exhibit of Cartoons Depicting Prophet Muhammad

An art event near Dallas became the site of a deadly shooting Sunday evening when police killed two armed men who had opened fire at the exhibit, which featured renderings of the Prophet Muhammad.

The event’s organizer and one of its featured speakers have made names for themselves as outspoken critics of Islam. The Associated Press reported that the two men at the Garland, Texas, exhibit were shot to death after they fired upon a security guard. The guard was shot in the ankle and treated at a local hospital; no visitors to the exhibition were injured.

Reuters brought news from the scene that evening:

Sunday’s attack took place shortly before 7 p.m. in a parking lot of the Curtis Culwell Center, an indoor arena in the suburb of Garland, northeast of Dallas. Geert Wilders, a polarizing Dutch politician and anti-Islamic campaigner who is on a jihadist hit list, was among speakers at the event.

Police said they had not immediately determined the identity of the two gunmen or whether they were linked to critics of the event who had branded it anti-Islamic.

[…] The exhibit was organized by Pamela Geller, president of the American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI). Her organization, which is described by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group, has sponsored anti-Islamic advertising campaigns in transit systems across the country.

Organizers said the exhibit was an event to promote freedom of expression. They offered a $10,000 prize for the best artwork or cartoon depicting the Prophet, as well as a $2,500 “People’s Choice Award.”

Much of the media coverage of Sunday’s violence focused on the issue of free speech, as well as the January shooting at the Paris headquarters of the satirical weekly newspaper Charlie Hebdo, in which 11 people were killed and 11 others were injured.

–Posted by Kasia Anderson