A mosque in the U.S. state of Arizona was the site of a protest by over 200 people, some armed, on Friday, according to Reuters news agency. The large crowd of 200 protestors hurled anti-Islamic abuse in a provocative protest that was met with counter-protestors shouting "Go home, Nazis," just weeks after an anti-Muslim event in Texas was attacked by two gunmen. The anti-Muslim incident occurred outside the Islamic Community Center of Phoenix, organized by an Iraq war veteran who had posted photos of himself wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with an anti-Islamic slogan and a U.S. flag in his hand. The event which got underway on Friday required police in riot gear to quickly separate the two groups of protestors who shouted obscenities at each other. Jon Ritzheimer, the organizer of the anti-Muslim crowd, cited the recent attack in Texas as a reason for the protest in announcement of the event at the mosque on his Facebook page. The two gunmen who attacked the Prophet Mohammed cartoon exhibition in Texas were shot dead by police before they could harm anyone. Phoenix Muslim community leaders had confirmed that both gunmen had been members of the Phoenix mosque at the center of the anti-Muslim protest. More than 900 people had committed to attending Friday's demonstration via the event's Facebook page. Among the anti-Islam protestors, some of which called Islam a "religion of murderers," more than a dozen were clad in military-style clothing and brandished semi-automatic weapons. Others flapped copies of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad drawn at the Texas event. Depictions of the Prophet Mohamad are not accepted in Islam, causing uproar when such imagery was created and displayed in Europe and the United States in recent months. Many anti-Muslim groups have been active in the U.S., buying ad space and organizing protests aimed at portraying Islam was violent, mostly citing recent examples of ISIS militants' brutal tactics in Iraq and Syria.
