Curtis Culwell Center attack

The event, which featured images of Muhammad, was advertised as the "First Annual Muhammad Art Exhibit and Contest", presented by the American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI), or Stop Islamization of America. It was organized by the AFDI together with the David Horowitz Freedom Center's Jihad Watch, run by Robert Spencer.[19] A $10,000 award was offered for the winning cartoon, which was selected from among 350 submissions. The prize was awarded to Bosch Fawstin, a former Muslim and a critic of Islam who submitted six drawings, with the text "You can't draw me!"/"That's why I draw you."[20][21] He was to collect an award of $12,500.[22] Though images of Muhammad are not explicitly banned by the Quran, prominent Islamic views oppose human images, especially those of prophets. Such views have gained ground among certain militant Islamic groups.[23][24][25]

The event featured speeches by Pamela Geller, president of the AFDI, and Dutch politician Geert Wilders, party leader of the Party for Freedom and outspoken critic of Islam. Congressmen Keith Ellison and André Carson[26][27] had tried unsuccessfully to block Wilders from entering the United States.[28] At the time of the attack, the "First Annual Muhammad Art Exhibit and Contest" exhibit was attended by approximately 150 people,[1] although the number was initially estimated at 200.[29]

The organizers of the event had paid over $10,000 to a total of forty off-duty police officers and private security guards.[5] The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), a SWAT team, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), and the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) were also brought in for the occasion of any possible incidents.[1][30] At the time, there was reportedly "no immediate credible threat" of an attack.[29]

Prior to the attack, ISIL had urged followers and sympathizers who were unable to join the fighting in the Syrian Civil War to carry out jihad in their home countries.[10][31] Approximately three hours prior to the start of the contest, the FBI had alerted the Garland Police Department that a suspected extremist, identified as gunman Elton Simpson, was "interested in the event" and could show up there. However, FBI officials later clarified they had no reason to believe an actual attack would occur at the contest.[32][33][34] Officers later stated that they were not aware of the alert.[1][35]

The "First Annual Muhammad Art Exhibit and Contest" event was hosted at the Curtis Culwell Center, rented from the Garland Independent School District. The center previously hosted a fundraiser in January called "Stand With the Prophet in Honor and Respect", which was organized to combat negative stereotypes of Islam.[36] Geller had spearheaded about 1,000 picketers at that event.[37][38]

Before the start of the "First Annual Muhammad Art Exhibit and Contest", concerns were expressed by Garland citizens about the center hosting the event due to potential backlash and retaliation, a sentiment that had also been voiced prior to the "Stand With the Prophet in Honor and Respect" event. However, officials allowed both events to proceed as planned, since the school district was bound by a nondiscriminatory leasing policy. Garland ISD board president Rick Lambert said in January, "The Culwell Center is available for rental as long as you comply with the law. Because it is a public facility, the district is not allowed to discriminate based upon viewpoint."[38][39]

Simpson was born in Illinois and raised in suburban Westmont.[56] He moved to Phoenix at a young age.[57] He converted to Islam while attending Washington High School. His lawyer described him as "particularly devout" and "entrenched in Islam", but said he did not seem to be a threat to anyone.[56][58] Simpson was a longtime worshiper at the Islamic Community Center of Phoenix, starting in approximately 2005, but according to the mosque's president, Usama Shami,[59] he stopped showing up months prior to the attack.[30][60][61][62][63][64] The mosque has been part of previous terrorism probes.[65] He attended Yavapai College in Prescott, Arizona, playing basketball for the college there.[66]

Simpson was the subject of an FBI investigation starting in 2006, during which he stated his intent to travel to Somalia and join fellow jihadists. He had ties to Hassan Abujihaad, a former United States Navy sailor arrested in Phoenix and convicted of terrorism-related charges.[60] Abujihaad had been an occasional attendant of the Islamic Community Center of Phoenix.[67]

In May 2009, Simpson told an FBI informant, "I'm telling you, man, we can make it to the battlefield. It's time to roll."[60] He was also recorded saying, "If you get shot, or you get killed, it's [heaven] straightaway... That's what we here for ... so why not take that route?"[60] In 2010, one day before Simpson was scheduled to travel to Somalia, he was arrested by federal agents as the result of a four-year investigation.[66] The Islamic Community Center of Phoenix posted cash bond of $100,000 to have him released from custody.[68] Simpson was found guilty of making a false statement regarding international and domestic terrorism, and was sentenced to three years probation and a $600 fine in August 2011 after lying to a federal agent about his travel plans. His lenient sentence was the result of U.S. District Court Judge Mary H. Murguia not finding sufficient evidence to conclude that he planned to join a terrorist organization.[20][40][69][70] He was put on the U.S. federal No Fly List.[40] He had previously intended to travel with others to Syria to fight with ISIL, though his accomplices were arrested during simultaneous FBI raids in San Diego and Minneapolis.[71] Authorities had already opened an investigation of Simpson at the time of the attack.[66]

He also interacted with Junaid Hussain, a British-born hacker and member of ISIL, and Mujahid Miski, an Al-Shabaab recruiter and propagandist of Muslim extremism from Minnesota, via Twitter through "secure communication". Hussain was also the founder of a pro-ISIL hacker group called "CyberCaliphate", which was responsible for a cyber-attack on the United States Central Command's Twitter account in January 2015.[72][73][74][75] A week prior to the attack, Simpson mentioned the "First Annual Muhammad Art Exhibit and Contest" event in a tweet sent to what is believed to be Hassan's Twitter account. Simpson then asked, "When will they ever learn?", and Hassan responded: "The brothers from the Charlie Hebdo attack did their part. It's time for brothers in the #US to do their part."[74] Investigators believe Hussain and Hassan encouraged Simpson to commit an attack on U.S. soil, but also that Simpson assembled the attack plan and targeted the art exhibit on his own accord.[75]

Simpson was identified as the same user who posted a tweet with the hashtag #texasattack: "May Allah accept us as mujahideen."[40] The profile photo on #texasattack was of the late American Salafi imam Anwar al-Awlaki, who had repeatedly called for violence against cartoonists who insulted the Islamic prophet Muhammad prior to being killed in a U.S. drone strike in 2011 in Yemen.[76] Junaid Hussain was identified as the ISIL propagandist whom Simpson recommended his readers to follow in that same tweet.[74]

Soofi's father, Azam Soofi,[77] is Pakistani, and his mother, Sharon Soofi, is American.[40] According to his mother, he was born at Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas and lived in Garland until age three.[78] The family then moved to Plano, Texas, and then Alabama.[79] His mother, who was raised Catholic, converted to Islam at the request of his father.[60][79] Soofi was also raised as a Muslim by his father.[52] He and his brother moved to Pakistan with their father and stepmother after their parents were divorced in the 1990s. During his time there, Soofi attended the International School of Islamabad, where he was said by friends to have been popular among his classmates.[40][51]

In 1998, after living in Pakistan for six years,[80] Soofi moved back to the U.S. to live with his mother in Utah.[40][52][81] The two later moved to Phoenix in the mid-2000s.[79] According to his friends in Pakistan, he had difficulties adjusting to the American culture upon moving to the U.S.[81] He took a pre-medical course at the University of Utah starting in the fall semester of 1998, but dropped out in the summer of 2003.[52][79][82] At one point, he also owned Cleopatra Bistro Pizza, a pizza and hot wings eatery that served halal food, though the business struggled and eventually closed down five months prior to the attack.[82]

Soofi was arrested and charged for more than twenty minor offenses, most of them traffic violations.[52][83] In June 2001, when he was twenty, he pleaded guilty to possession of alcohol by a minor. In March 2002, he pleaded guilty to alcohol-related reckless driving, followed by another guilty plea in June 2002 for driving on a suspended license. In 2003, he was charged for distributing a controlled substance and possessing drug paraphernalia, although the case was later dismissed. That same year in July, Soofi pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor assault charge. The case was also dismissed.[31][83]

He was survived by his parents and an eight-year-old son from a failed marriage.[61][79][84][85][86] After the attack, his mother said her son was "brainwashed" by Simpson, claims that were echoed by his father[77] and maternal grandmother,[86] and that she did not blame police for killing her son.[87]

Abdul Kareem was born and raised in Philadelphia as Decarus Lowell Thomas. In 2013, he changed his name to Abdul Malik Abdul Kareem and converted to Islam. He occasionally attended the Islamic Community Center of Phoenix since at least 2011 and cleaned carpets there. Kareem had a criminal record in Arizona, including two aggravated drunken driving convictions and an aggravated assault charge in 1997. In the latter incident, a woman told police that he pointed a gun in her direction; Abdul Kareem claimed he instead took the weapon away from his brother during an argument and wasn't pointing it at anyone.[88] He had been arrested a total of eleven times between 1991 and 2004, and also served jail time twice.[89]

Following the attack, he lied to FBI investigators several times and said he was not asked by Simpson or Soofi to directly participate in the attack.[53] However, according to a confidential informant, Kareem was indeed planning on participating with them and had been angry at the informant for not selling him suppressors and bulletproof vests.[89] He allegedly attempted to fund the attack by feigning injuries inflicted after being struck by a car and then making an insurance claim based on the injuries.[55] Previously, Abdul Kareem was investigated by the FBI in 2012 for having a terrorism training document on his computer and developing a plot to attack the Super Bowl XLIX game in Glendale, Arizona with pipe bombs.[55][88][89] He had also reportedly accessed a list released by ISIL, which contained the names and addresses of U.S. service members.[41]

He was arrested on June 11 and charged with "conspiracy, making false statements and interstate transportation of firearms with intent to commit a felony." According to an indictment, Kareem practiced shooting with Simpson and Soofi between January and May in Phoenix.[88][89] According to CNN, the firearms were all bought legally.[90] His trial was initially set for August 4, but it was later rescheduled for October 6.[89] On December 21, Abdul Kareem was also charged with conspiring to provide support to ISIL and attempting to attack the Super Bowl XLIX game.[54][55] On March 17, 2016, Kareem was found guilty of conspiring with terrorists for helping the attack's perpetrators plan to carry it out.[91] He was sentenced to 30 years in prison in February 2017. Kareem is serving his sentence at FCI Beaumont Medium, and is scheduled for release on November 20, 2041.

The injured security guard, Bruce Joiner, filed a federal lawsuit in October 2017 against the FBI and DOJ.[9][note 1] His suit argues the bureau "solicited, encouraged, directed and aided members of ISIS in planning and carrying out the May 3 attack", and is asking for just over $8 million damages.[9] Evidence submitted to court in previous cases confirm that an FBI undercover agent was in communication with the attackers and present at the Culwell Center during the attack.[6][8] When he saw the attack underway he attempted to flee and was promptly stopped at gunpoint by Garland police.[6][8][9]

Court pleadings filed by the federal government in January 2018 as part of an attempt to get the suit dismissed confirmed that the undercover FBI agent "was dressed in Middle Eastern attire and police almost killed him, but he saved his life by claiming to be an FBI agent."[117] In a media interview, Joiner's attorney argued the attack was either "Just a complete botched operation where they [the FBI] don't want the attack to actually take place" or it was allowed to proceed in order to "bolster [the undercover agent's] street cred within ISIS".[117] In March 2018, the undercover agent, appearing in disguise and under a pseudonym, testified in a criminal trial against Erick Jamal Hendricks.[118] In that testimony the agent said he had no advance knowledge of the Garland attack and was surprised when the attackers opened fire.[118]

On December 21, 2018, US District Court Judge Karen Gren Scholer dismissed Joiner's lawsuit.[118] In her opinion, Judge Scholer wrote: "The Court finds that the conduct alleged by Plaintiff fall[s] within the scope of the discretionary authority conferred on the FBI by the Undercover Guidelines and the [DIOG (Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide)]."[118][note 2]

In an interview with Fox News Channel's The Kelly File, UCLA School of Law professor Eugene Volokh said

[T]his kind of discussion has value in debate about Islam and about the role of Islam and about the reaction of some Muslims, fortunately only a small portion of Muslims do these kinds of things. But beyond that it has value as a reaffirmation of our free speech rights. It has value as an act of defiance. It has value as people saying: look, we are not going to be shut up. When you tell us that we cannot draw pictures of Mohammed, when you tell us we cannot say these things or else you'll kill us, that just means that we're going to do it again and again to show that you cannot threaten Americans into submission.[119]

Also on The Kelly File, Alan Dershowitz said that "critics of Pamela Geller...should realize that while she may have intended to provoke a negative reaction from extreme Islamists, she shares something in common with civil rights leader the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr."[120]

Victor Davis Hanson wrote in an article in the National Review online magazine that "radical Islam has already cut a huge swathe out of American free speech through more than a decade of death threats." He also wrote that the criticism directed towards Geller for supposedly striking up religious hatred was "scary" and compared Geller to the cartoonists who were killed during the Charlie Hebdo shooting.[121]

Bret Stephens, columnist for The Wall Street Journal, put Geller's speech in the same category as Bill Maher or the writers of Charlie Hebdo — legitimate speech against Islamism — and commented, "I say Islamist because there is a rich history of Muslim depictions of Muhammad." He also added that "those [who] blame Geller for the provocation are blaming the victim just as those who say rape victims are asking for it." Stephens went on to argue that a "society that rejects the notion of a heckler's veto cannot accept the idea of a murderer's veto..."[122]

Rich Lowry, writing in Politico, defended Geller's idea that the contest and exhibit's purpose was about freedom of speech:

Respectable opinion can't bear the idea that she has become a symbol of free speech, which once upon a time was — and still is, when convenient — one of the highest values of the media and the left. If Geller were a groundbreaking pornographer like the loathsome Larry Flynt, someone would already be planning a celebratory biopic of her life. If she were a gadfly sticking it to a major Western religion rather than to Islam, she might be considered more socially acceptable.[123]

On the day after the shooting, Donald Trump, appearing on Fox & Friends, questioned Geller's motives. He said, "It looks like she's just taunting everybody. What is she doing? Drawing Mohammed and it looks like she's actually taunting people. (...) You know, I'm one that believes in free speech, probably more than she does. But what's the purpose of this?" In response to Trump's remarks, Bill O'Reilly said in his program The O'Reilly Factor, "Mr. Trump is correct. By setting up a contest and awarding $10,000 for a depiction of the Prophet Mohammed, the American Freedom Defense Initiative spurred a violent attack. (...) Insulting a religion with more than a billion followers does not advance the cause of defeating the fanatical jihadists. It hurts the cause."[124][125]

Fox News' On the Record host Greta Van Susteren criticized Geller for putting police officers' lives in danger. She said, "It's one thing for someone to stand up for the First Amendment and put his own you-know-what on the line, but here, those insisting they were defending the First Amendment were knowingly putting officers' lives on the line — the police."[126]

Geller and Islamist Anjem Choudary appeared on Hannity on Fox News to debate the merits of AFDI's contest. In response to host Sean Hannity's question about whether Choudary supported an unverified ISIL fatwa[127] and posted on an anonymous message board calling for Geller's death, he replied, "This isn't Mickey Mouse or Donald Duck they were drawing. This is the prophet. This woman wants to have people draw cartoons that insult the prophet knowing full well that carries the death penalty in Islam. So definitely, she's asking people to attack." When Hannity asked whether he thought Geller should die, Choudary said, "She should be tried in a sharia court, be found guilty, and, of course, she would face capital punishment." After Hannity reminded Choudary that Geller is not a Muslim, he continued, "You can't go down that road, insulting Muslims, and think the Muslims aren't going to retaliate back. I would attack someone if they insult my mother, let alone the prophet who I love 100 times more."[128]

Garland Mayor Douglas Athas said he wished Geller had not chosen his town for her event and explained, "Her actions put my police officers, my citizens and others at risk. Her program invited an incendiary reaction. She picked my community, which does not support in any shape, passion or form, her ideology. (...) But at the end of the day, we did our jobs, we protected her freedoms and her life".[129]

In an interview with The New York Times, the editor of Charlie Hebdo, Gérard Biard, rejected "attempts by right-wing activists to exploit that attack for their own agendas". He also added, "We have nothing to do with Pamela Geller's work. When Islam or the Prophet Muhammad jump out of the news, we comment on it, we mock it, maybe. But we are not obsessed about it."[130]