Interview with Jason Leger, Anti-Islam Protester Who Changed Heart

Arizona recently had a large armed protest outside a Mosque sporting classy shirts that stated F*** Islam while drawing cartoons of Muhammed. Their need to be armed was to protect themselves from Islamic crazies upset about those cartoons since organizers of this rally were threatened via Twitter by terrorists (or wanna be terrorists).

Hundreds gather in Arizona for armed anti-Muslim protest

PHOENIX —About 250 mostly armed anti-Muslim demonstrators — many wearing T-shirts bearing a profanity-laced message denouncing Islam — faced-off against a crowd of roughly the same size defending the faith in front of a Phoenix mosque Friday night.

Demonstrators yelled and taunted one another across a line of police separating the two sides but violence did not break out.

Jon Ritzheimer, the organizer of the protest, called it a patriotic sign of resistance against what he deemed the tyranny of Islam in America.

But during the protest one man who was a leader of the campaign had himself a change of heart after being invited into the Mosque he was outside protesting. He still contends he wore the shirt out of Freedom of speech but he will never again don it.

Out of hate and ignorance spawned empathy. Score 1 for humanity!

a reply to: Swills

This is bad news for the Christians. They want the enmity, they want their religion to be the best, meh ...

I watched him on CNN and considered him a boob. He had a concern with radical Islam but through his ignorance blamed all of Islam.

On the other side I watch the protest and only saw one of the F Islam t shirt. I believe the media grossly inflamed the entire protest by repeatedly mentioning the T-shirt and claiming the majority of protesters wore them .

a reply to: Greathouse

I agree, from his lack of knowledge about the religion he was protesting I'd say he was indeed a boob but a happy ending comes out of this by him learning about the religion and people he was protesting.

CNN and the rest of ilk absolutely love to hype the hate.

a reply to: Swills

I haven't watched the video yet but I will .

I just wanted to share my story and judging by the headline it's similar.

I was Raised in a conservative christian family by the time i was 18 i was so anti Islam it was scary .

At one point I was 2 clicks from joining the military because i wanted to "kill them dam Muslims" .

Fast forward and my brother is on his 3rd tour and I am at home studying religion . Decided to study "my enemy" in this case it was Islam because i was so brainwashed and had taken in everything i had ever read or heard about it as fact !

fast forward some more .... oh boy! was i so wrong .

long story short I went to a local Masjid (mosque ) and met with the Imam ( sort of like a preacher or priest ) and the rest is history !


Happy to be American and Muslim .

Love life , Love people , Understand love and compassion all thanks to this religion .


Alhamdulilah ( all praise is due to god).


There is more to the story of how Islam helped me in other ways but ill save that for a thread i suppose .


thanks for the thread OP .

This is fantastic. All the propaganda in the world is powerless against the experience of walking into a place of worship, peacefully engaging the people there, and actually feeling what it's all about.

I'm surprised the Fox affiliate here ran with this. But amusingly, the anchors seem a little confused by what happened.

Probably because they've spent the last decade of their careers lying about Islam.

a reply to: Swills

I somehow doubt God played a part in making this guy change his mind haha

Religion is flawed, but it seems to me like just because we have groups like ISIS (who probably wouldn't even exist had it not been for western actions), it gives some idiots carte blanche to hate Islam as a whole, like every Muslim is responsible for what ISIS does, such is the mentality of the ignorant.

a reply to: Zcustosmorum

It wasn't God, it was the people he sat down and listened to. It was he who changed his own mind.

originally posted by: Swills
a reply to: Zcustosmorum

It wasn't God, it was the people he sat down and listened to. It was he who changed his own mind.

Dark humour

I hope all ATS members watch this video. Great find. Just shows how he most ignorant people can have their minds opens with rational debate, even when they had no intention to. Do I believe him when he said it was all about free speech ..no. but adleast he saw past his ignorance and was willing to be proved wrong eventually, something most members aren't willing to do. Thankyou.

originally posted by: mekhanics
a reply to: Swills

This is bad news for the Christians. They want the enmity, they want their religion to be the best, meh ...

The irony of this post is still making me chuckle. Going from hating on Muslims to Christians in 1 post.

Useful idiots are always good for a laugh.

a reply to: Greathouse

There was plenty of people wearing them, wouldn't say it was a majority of people but def more then one.

originally posted by: Sremmos80
a reply to: Greathouse

There was plenty of people wearing them, wouldn't say it was a majority of people but def more then one.

I'm not saying you're wrong by a longshot. I actually spent some time searching for images of them at the event but could not find any .

Could you show me a link by any chance?

originally posted by: NthOther
This is fantastic. All the propaganda in the world is powerless against the experience of walking into a place of worship, peacefully engaging the people there, and actually feeling what it's all about.

I'm surprised the Fox affiliate here ran with this. But amusingly, the anchors seem a little confused by what happened.

Probably because they've spent the last decade of their careers lying about Islam.

This is a local FOX affiliate and usually they don't push the same anti Islam propaganda that the cable "news" channel pushes.

a reply to: Greathouse

I mean I can't really link the images because for the language on there but if you google it you will see more then one.


Both the guys that organized it and there posse or crew rather were all wearing them.
Found one these two with it blurred.


And this gem, with "Support your local white boy" and the SS symbol.

I wonder also if photographers avoided taking the pictures of it because they would not be able to be used on most pages.
That is purely speculation though.

a reply to: Sremmos80

I searched Google numerous times found people wearing the T-shirt but they didn't link to the protest. Help me out a little what were your specific search terms ?

a reply to: Greathouse

F Islam t shirt phoenix, there is only a few more photos on there I'll be honest and some showing the bald guy multiple times.

But it has the picture of his crew wearing them and a few more.

Maybe I just saw the same people wearing them when I was watching the live stream but I saw it plenty of times.

I do agree it was not the majority of people though.

a reply to: Kapusta

Out of ignorance into further ignorance.

Can't respect that. Islam as it manifests on this planet is a scourge to humanity. And it's not really a surprise, it's the most barbaric major religion in the World and they're just following the advice of their book - their book of lies. It's crude and so is the culture it is/is attached to.

Sufism seems to be the only respectable branch and it is being harassed by other more powerful branches.

The fruits of Islam has been terror and destruction for 1400 years. And the delusional cultural Marxists and Muslims that square off against the equally feeble minded jingoistic Americans that have been fed a diet of mainstream media terror are so caught up with the distortions of their opposition that they slide easily into defending the atrocities of Islam. Like the hopelessly naive apologist feminists of my country always defending Islam despite their obvious misogyny. The cognitive dissonance of their alliance oblivious to their vapid and easily indoctrinated minds. Might as well teach them that the sky is multi-coloured green(these relativists would then tell me that from some hypothetical perspective the sky could very well actually be green, this is more evidence of their intellectual escapism and their fragile inconsistent ontological process), their appetite and acceptance of newspeak is nothing short of astounding.

Islam is now busy destroying Europe, bringing the destruction and delusion to new lands. I can't respect an American that goes from Fox news tomfoolery to fully embracing a foreign religion. I don't understand these white people that feel the need to embrace a foreign and devilish religion like Islam. In your case, going from one extreme to another. If you wanted lies, you could have stuck with the lies of Christianity.

There's something off with these people.. I don't know what they are searching for that they can't find elsewhere. I don't know if they're so tired of the fakeness and lies of modern Western consumer culture that they run into the hands of any snakes oil salesmen they can find, if they do it just to be nonconformist for the sake of it or if they've got a boner for tyranny - preferably by God himself.

Maybe they're one of the millions of people that found the true gems of the religion hidden in allegory, someone that found the depths of spirituality. That does happen too, of course. I don't mean to insult you like this, I don't know you.. but it makes me wonder, this trend..

I would like to see your opinion once you've gone to live in a Muslim enclave in French as a Christian or a Jew for a few years. I judge religions by their fruit and the Abrahamic ones are especially crude and intolerant. It's not like Buddhism or other esoteric systems couldn't offer a far more efficient and clear path for any student thirsting for revelation.

a reply to: TheLaughingGod


I respect your opinion however I don't agree with it . I am of the Opinion that it's the same old elementary regurgitation i used to hear and read about before I became Muslim .

And occasionally Ill come across people like your self who think they have an Idea of what Islam is .

Judging by your essay their you have very limited knowledge of Islam and only chose to subscribe to the misconstrued history under the banner of "islam".

I am in my 4th year of Studying Islam and I consider my self a ultra conservative Muslim salafi to be exact .

Nothing have I read in my study's paints the picture you just painted of Islam .

Aside from extremist and innovators of the religion , people taking the text and reforming them for political or personal gain .

Ottoman did this , ISIS does this , Taliban does this , etc

Look I have been in hours upon hours of debates upon this religion and respectfully I have to say your words are falling on def ears just as mine will do the same .

Islam has taught me many things because i followed the right path and didn't deviate .

Love , compassion, respect , honor, pride . courage etc

It has humbled my heart in many ways , It works for me and 1.5 billion others .

I have no desire to kill or hurt anyone , I just wish to love and remain humble and please god .

this is true Islam .

a reply to: Kapusta

Judge them by their fruits. Conversion by sword. Terror and death. I only regret that Genghis Khan had to die before conquering all of the Middle East. Perhaps he would've put an end to the madness.

Islam and the Western world is on a collision course - hell, Islam and the rest of the World are, they are incompatible, the trajectory is set. Without the West the whole of the Middle East would be a medieval wasteland, they couldn't hope to run a modern industrialized country by themselves without our mental and physical infrastructure. Islam is a black hole to culture and civilisation, steadily swallowing diversity like an octopus strangling the World. There is no place for progress, no place for free thinking, only a mindless subservience to a theocratic dictator that wants to govern every aspect of one's life. If he is the eternal Godhead I weep for creation. He sounds more like an evil demiurge than anything else to me. But you wear your illusionary chains proudly.. not knowing that you don't need him or anyone else.

Seems more and more like the fallen angels were the true liberators.. what has the religions of the seed of Abraham brought to the World but repression? The Watchers illuminated mankind and brought civilisation.. the Abrahamic religions brought tyranny and shackles for the mind and spirit and humanity has been retarded and hampered ever since. That time will be coming to an end.

Islam... pfft!