Megyn Kelly: If You Silence Critics of Islam, Jihadists Win

Fox News host Megyn Kelly opened her show, "The Kelly File," on Wednesday by warning critics of the "Draw Muhammad" contest that they are hurting the cause of free speech by suggesting contest organizers asked for it by provoking two home-grown terrorists.

The two men, both Americans, were shot to death outside the Sunday event in Garland, Texas, after they showed up with assault weapons.

Kelly played video of MSNBC hosts Al Sharpton and Chris Matthews and CNN host Alyson Camerota saying the event was irresponsible and "hate speech."

"If this is where American sentiment stands on this issue, then the jihadis are officially winning," Kelly said. "The terrorists' point was to shut us up — not just the organizers of this event but any American who deigns to disagree with their way of life or thinking."

She acknowledged that there is a time and place to discuss the obviously provocative nature of the event — Muslims consider visual depictions of the founder of Islam blasphemous — "but within hours of an attempted murder of the very folks under attack?"

The reaction, Kelly said, is, "You asked for it."

"Well, they did not ask for it," a clearly angry Kelly said. "In this country, we have every right to say what we want to say about Muhammad or anyone else, for that matter, and the rest of society can condemn this group's speech as a matter of decorum, but how about waiting a beat until the crime scene has been cleared?"

Kelly's fellow Fox News hosts Bill O'Reilly and Greta Van Susteren have criticized event organizer Pamela Geller.

The press, by attacking the event, draws a moral equivalent between those who speak words that some find offensive and those who kill over such words, she said.

First Amendment scholar Eugene Volokh told Kelly that no matter how offensive, the cartoon event did add value to the discussion of free speech.

"It has value in debate about Islam and about the role of Islam and about the reaction of some Muslims ... to these kinds of things," he said. "Beyond that, it has value as a reaffirmation of free-speech rights, value as an act of defiance. It has value of people saying, 'Look, we are not going to be shut up.'"

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