Excerpt:
Below are the video and transcript to Robert Spencer's speech at the Muhammad Art Exhibit and Contest, sponsored by the American Freedom Defense Initiative and held in Garland, Texas.
Robert Spencer: Geert Wilders mentioned that the PEN Writers Association that was founded in order to defend the freedom of expression is giving an award to the Charlie Hebdo cartoonists — Pamela spoke about this as well — and that 145 of the members of PEN, including some very prominent writers — Joyce Carol Oates, who you may've heard of, and some others — have pulled out. Because they say that it is manifesting cultural arrogance. They said that the French manifested cultural arrogance in drawing Muhammad and allowing Charlie Hebdo to draw Muhammad.
They don't seem concerned about the cultural arrogance of the assassins who murdered these cartoonists in the name of a blasphemy law that the cartoonists did not hold. They didn't care about that imposition of one culture over another; they only cared that the French were following their own long tradition of free expression.