I went to support the Islamic Center of Phoenix, and their right to worship. The anti freedom of religion people didn't even start showing up until about 10am. At about noon, maybe 100 anti religious freedomers came, no bikers, not a lot of guns, and on their side a fight broke out.
The police had a much smaller area than they did in May blocked off with barriers, with a space between them. On one side was about 100 anti freedom of religion persons, and on the other side maybe 15 or 20 big men. The rest of the people (maybe 300 people, including children) were inside the Islamic Center complex sharing food and having a good time.
I walked down the middle of the road, offering the 15 or so police officers water and trail bars. One of them remembered me from the last time...well my Subie anyway...bright yellow Subaru Brat. Someone stuck a 'F*K Islam sticker on it, and he stopped me on my way home and helped me to tape it over until I got home. Who says Duct Tape doesn't have many uses.
I brought some trail bars, Nutty Buddies and water that both sides enjoyed. My husband insisted on coming with me this time, and he was armed because at the rally on May 30th, someone got 'in my face' because I was talking to some of the Muslim ladies.
If he couldn't come armed, he wouldn't let me come. So I had to...lol
Some guy who was named someone else last time, introduced himself as Saad this time, and after a chant of USA, USA, USA, and a mostly unintelligible rant because of his pretend Arab accent, introduced Jon Ritzheimer who kept saying that 'this isn't about racism'...don't let the media spin this'. He rattled off some anti Islamic statistics.
Ritzheimer is a little man, standing next to my husband he is maybe 5'7" (my husband is 6'2") but then too, it is always the little ones who make the big noise.
Otherwise it was pretty bland, simply because those who were there to support the Islamic Center, and the right for people to worship the way they want in peace were really not interested in what went on outside.
UPDATE*
Here are some impressions from the Phoenix media. Please note that this 'skirmish' described by the media was a fight between two of the 'anti Islamic' protestors disagreeing among themselves. My please note that I witnessed some of the 'moderate' protestors objecting because one of the persons in the fight was wearing a pro- Nazi T-Shirt, and was asked to leave. The 'going past the barriers' claim reported by the media is that the two combatants were engaged and their fight came outside of the barriers. They stopped when police asked them to, and left. This fight had nothing to do with the protest itself.
Other people asked to leave by the anti Muslim protestors were those who brought, or draped themselves in the traitor flag of the Confederacy.
http://www.foxnews.com/...
http://www.theguardian.com/...
http://www.kpho.com/...
Here is an editorial by EJ Montini, a very conservative writer. I posted this because even he saw the evil in claiming to march for humanity, and leaving out 1/5 of the earth's population.
http://www.azcentral.com/...