George Zimmerman’s ‘Muslim-free’ buddy says Americans are fighting a Civil War against ‘tyranny’
George Zimmerman and his new ally Andy Hallinan -- the owner of the Florida gun shop that loudly declared itself a "Muslim-free zone" earlier this summer -- have both been leaning increasingly toward inflammatory rhetoric against the U.S. government.
In a message on the social medium Twitter, Zimmerman said on Friday "Si vis pacem para bellam," Latin for "If you want peace, then prepare for war."
Hallinan, meanwhile, told conservative Miami talk radio host Joyce Kaufman on Tuesday that America is under dire threat from "extreme political correctness" which is in danger of bringing on "the destruction of the American dream as a whole."
Patriots, he said, need to prepare to “go into battle, in a sense, with the leadership of this country.”
The Inverness, Florida business owner went on to praise the Confederacy and agreed with Kaufman that the nation is again at war with itself over threats from Islamic extremists and from the “big political machine” in Washington.
“It’s nice to say that the war was fought over slavery,” Kaufman said, “but in fact it was actually a war over the big political machine that they didn’t want dictating how they live their lives. And that’s not such a dissimilar theme to what we’re experiencing right now.”
“At the end of the day, the war was fought over tyranny and a difference of opinion, that’s what it was, and of course money,” Hallinan said. “You know, slavery was an issue but it was well known that the North actually had more slaves at the time, which was interesting.”
Hallinan joined forces with Zimmerman -- who shot unarmed teen Trayvon Martin to death in February of 2012 -- when Zimmerman heard that Hallinan was being sued by the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) for barring adherents to the Muslim faith from his shop.
Zimmerman said that when he heard, he was in the middle of doing another American flag painting, but painted over it and made a Confederate flag instead, prints of which have been sold to pay Hallinan's legal bills.
“I didn’t want to see you give up the fight simply for financial reasons,” said Zimmerman to Hallinan in a “mini-documentary” the two filmed together. “[CAIR has] endless resources, they have tons of money. I just wanted to do my part.”