Anthea Butler is an Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. The title of her most recent book, The Gospel According to Sarah: How Sarah Palin’s Tea Party Angels Are Galvanizing the Religious Right, gives you a pretty good idea of where she stands politically.
This morning, she strongly implied that Sam Bacile is responsible for yesterday’s embassy attacks and, as a result, should be tossed into jail.
Bacile is an Israeli filmmaker who lives in California and has gone into hiding. He made the crappy movie that is being used as a pretext to justify the violence that erupted in Egypt and Libya yesterday.
But is making a movie that makes Muslims angry a crime? Butler appears to think so.
Of course, like any academic, Butler purports to support free speech rights:
https://twitter.com/AntheaButler/status/245863171003404288
But it is clear that she gets most excited when arguing that those rights are highly circumscribed:
@blmoyer And people do to jail for speech. First Amendment doesn't cover EVERYTHING a PERSON says.
— ProfB (@AntheaButler) September 12, 2012
I am all for free speech, but you better damn well understand that actions have consequences, and what you mock is another persons belief.
— ProfB (@AntheaButler) September 12, 2012
@jason_a_hines the murder of the Ambassador and the employees is wrong, wrong. But Bacile will have to face his actions which he had freedom
— ProfB (@AntheaButler) September 12, 2012
Sounds like Anthea Butler, Sally Kohn, and Mike Barnicle would get along swimmingly.
Related: Twitter users call for the arrest and murder of Terry Jones
Update: Butler has gone into CYA-mode and locked her Twitter account.
Update: The plot thickens: Filmmaker ‘Sam Bacile,’ blamed for embassy attacks, does not exist
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