Rep. Martin Daniel defending comments about ISIS recruiting on campus. READ: https://t.co/ofG0r4Z6U1 #WATE pic.twitter.com/YXvAyrOp5x
— WATE 6 On Your Side (@6News) March 17, 2016
On Wednesday, Daniel discussed his initiative with Democratic member of the Tennessee House of Representatives John Deberry in a subcommittee meeting.
Deberry asked if the proposed law would allow people to "stand in the marketplace or in the town square" to recruit for Daesh, a violent extremist group of religious fundamentalists that US Secretary of State John Kerry has branded as guilty of genocide in Syria. Daniel responded that speech is protected in America, unless it “disrupts the proceedings on that campus.”
DeBerry stated that a line should be drawn between what he defines as free speech and "being stupid."
“There are young people who are not ready yet — they're half-baked, half-cooked — who are recruited to work against their own parents, their own nation, and I would be concerned as a parent and as a citizen,” DeBerry claimed as quoted by WATE.
Daniel’s assertions of free speech, in dealing with an uncomfortable topic, have shocked some, but he hasn’t softened his tone. In his defense the congressman pointed to the First Amendment of the US Constitution.
"I will never apologize for defending the First Amendment," he said. "I will always cloak myself in it, and defend others' right to speak."
In the court case of Tairod Pugh, a US military veteran caught on the Syrian border carrying a device containing a Daesh propaganda video, his lawyer stated that “none of this is illegal” and a person can’t be punished “for his thoughts.”
In what appeared to be one of the first trials of Daesh sympathizers in the US, Pugh was eventually found guilty and could receive a maximum prison sentence of 35 years.
Some 900 cases of alleged Daesh sympathizers are under investigation by the FBI, the agency Director James Comey said.