on Tuesday, March 5, 2013
CPAC is the largest annual gathering of conservatives in the country, and one of the few places where conservative politicians, movement leaders, media personalities and big donors all come together under one roof.
See also Loonwatch, 3 March 2013
on Monday, February 11, 2013
The Queens Village Republican Club has announced that they are honouring Pamela Geller as the "American Patriot of the Year" at their 138th Anniversary Lincoln Dinner today. They explain:
Pamela Geller's award for patriotism is due to her courageous and unwavering stance as a major proponent of free speech. Whether we agree or disagree with her ideas and opinions, true patriotism is having the guts to speak out and champion our First Amendment rights without surrendering to intimidation, threats, and violent acts. Ideas can change the course of history and the Freedom of Speech protects all ideas, whether we like them or not, and if this freedom was lost, someone else will dictate what's right and what's forbidden for us.
Geller claims that America's free press, the bulwark against tyranny, has been compromised and people have been silenced by the threat of Islamic terrorism. With over 20,000 deadly terrorist attacks since 9-11, this, she asserts is the gravest threat that civilization faces. Geller has simply been calling attention to the perpetrators of these terrorist attacks, church bombings, honor killings, bus bombings, and the ideology that inspires them. For this, she, rather than the perpetrators of these acts, has been the focus of outrage from many media outlets.
However, Ms. Geller has courageously stood her ground and continued to tell the truth. Truth, she says "is the new hate speech "and it's even come to the point where "telling the truth is a radical act." Exercising her fundamental rights, she has recently been in the news for a massive campaign of subway ads calling for support of civilization against the savagery of jihad: "In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man. Support Israel. Defeat Jihad" The MTA rejected her ads, while she noticed many negative anti-Israel ads were accepted. She sued the MTA and won in court with the judge ruling that the MTA violated her First Amendment rights.
We agree with Michael Coren, Sun TV host who said "I honestly think that one day historians will write about the defense of Western values and virtues in the 21st Century and speak of heroes. And one will be Pamela Geller."
Yes, this is the same Pamela Geller who, less than a week ago, posted a piece on her Atlas Shrugs site that called for Islam to be banned, mosques to be demolished and Muslims to be deported or killed. Is this what passes for "patriotism" in the Republican Party these days?
on Wednesday, February 6, 2013
Over at Atlas Shrugs, Pamela Geller has posted a response to the latest "Muslim patrol" video to appear on YouTube. "For years now," Geller pontificates, "Leftists and assorted 'anti-racists' have been denying the existence of these Sharia patrols...." It is of course true that we deny their existence, but that is for the simple reason that they don't really exist.
You'll see that the new video contains no actual patrolling at all. In contrast to the two previous videos the two-man, self-appointed "Muslim patrol" doesn't even approach anyone on the street, still less harass them. The video just features a lot of loud-mouthed ranting to camera, with a middle section showing an apparently drunken man nodding off on a bench, accompanied by a disapproving commentary.
As existential threats to western civilisation go, you'd have to say this one isn't particularly scary.
More significant, however, is that Geller crossposts, with evident approval, an article from another Islamophobic blog called The Muslim Issue commenting on the video. It reads in part:
If a government wants to learn how to manage growing Islamic problems, take some advice from Ottoman army officer Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. Atatürk abolished Islam by putting a complete ban on Islamic materials, demolishing mosques, and removing any traces of Islam in his country to get rid of the evil. Those who tried to revolt were put in their place, or basically killed....
It is time for the UK to stop wasting their military abroad, but bring them to patrol their own streets and begin to remove Muslims. And it is vital time to plan and arrange deportation programs – and even arrange new deportation programs for practicing Muslims born in England to be deported to their parent's country of origin.
This goes way beyond anything that even the English Defence League or the British National Party would officially support. They are the sort of policies advocated by the most extreme neo-Nazi elements of the far right in the UK. Are US Republican Party organisations and mainstream media outlets going to continue providing a platform for a woman who posts material like this on her blog?
on Friday, January 25, 2013
An outfit calling itself the Creative Zionist Coalition has announced that it is awarding Pamela Geller with the "Queen Esther Award for Jewish Heroism" and Robert Spencer with the "Shushan Award for Righteous Gentile".
Loonwatch reports on the background of the CZC's founders, Jessica Felber and Orit Arfa, and their links to the Zionist Organization of America.
The CZC's stated aim is to "vigorously support and defend Israel without apology, taking principled positions based on reason, logic, ethics and history". Quite what Geller and Spencer have to do with reason, logic and ethics, or indeed with any honest approach to history, is unclear.
on Thursday, January 10, 2013
The Maryland chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MD) is calling on Marylanders to contact several public officials in that state to request that they withdraw from participation in the upcoming Maryland Conservative Action Network Conference in Annapolis because the leader of a designated anti-Muslim hate group will speak at the event.
An action alert distributed by CAIR-MD calls on concerned citizens to send those officials a letter, which states in part:
"You are one of the few public officials who have chosen to speak at this conference. I believe your appearance with a hate group leader would be a disservice to your constituents and would bring disrepute to your office. I respectfully urge you to withdraw from this conference.
"The headline speaker at this event is Pamela Geller, one of the nation's most virulent Islamophobes. Geller's organization, Stop the Islamization of America (SIOA), is designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), which also named Geller as a member of the 'anti-Muslim inner circle.'
"Geller has bragged online that she uses a Quran, Islam's holy text, as a doorstop. Two hotels, one in Texas and another in Tennessee, dropped scheduled events that featured Geller as a speaker. Her hate blog was cited by Anders Breivik, the terrorist who went on a killing spree in Norway.
"Geller has claimed that 'Hitler and the Nazis were inspired by Islam' and that Islam 'mandates' lies and deception. She has also posted images on her blog that include a fake photograph of then Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan in a Nazi uniform, another fake image of President Obama urinating on an American flag, and drawings purporting to depict Islam's Prophet Muhammad as a pig.
"One image posted by Geller, headlined 'Piss Be Upon Him,' showed one of the controversial Danish cartoons of the prophet covered in urine. ('Piss Be Upon Him' is designed to mock the traditional phrase 'Peace Be Upon Him' that Muslims use when mentioning any prophet of God.) In a 2010 blog entry, Geller posted a video claiming that Muslims engage in bestiality."
CAIR-MD is also encouraging concerned citizens to take part in a protest of Geller's presence at the Saturday event.
CAIR press release, 9 January 2013
See also "Kipke rejects group's call to boycott speech by 'Islamaphobe'", Maryland Gazette, 9 January 2013
on Friday, November 16, 2012
The controversial ads unveiled on the back of 10 CTA buses Wednesday read, "In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man." They conclude with the words, "Support Copts. Defeat Jihad," referring to friction between Muslims and Coptic Christians in Egypt.
Within hours of the buses' first runs, messages appeared on Facebook and Twitter denouncing the campaign. Many said degrading a spiritual tenet of Islam – one that refers to a Muslim's personal quest to become a better person – amounts to hate speech.
Chicago Tribune, 14 November 2012
See also "Act now against Islamophobic ads appearing on CTA buses", JCUA Newsblog, 14 November 2012
Geller's notorious "It's Not Islamophobia, It's Islamorealism" ad has also appeared on public transport in Denver.
See "RTD political ads called anti-Islamic", 9 News, 13 November 2012
And "Anti-Islam ads on RTD buses condemned", KDVR, 14 November 2012
Update: See "Pam Geller compares Jewish group to Nazi sympathizers", Salon, 15 November 2012
on Friday, October 5, 2012
Rabbis for Human Rights – North Americaand the group Sojourners, led by the Christian author and social-justice advocate Jim Wallis, are unveiling their campaigns on Monday. Their ads will be placed near the anti-jihad ads in the same Manhattan subway stations, leaders of both groups said and transit officials confirmed. The groups said their campaigns were coincidental.
The ad by Rabbis for Human Rights turns the language of the earlier ad, placed by a pro-Israel group, on its head. The original ad says, "In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man. Support Israel. Defeat jihad." The ad by Rabbis for Human Rights says, "In the choice between love and hate, choose love. Help stop bigotry against our Muslim neighbors."
"We wanted to make it clear that it is in response to the anti-Islam ad," said Rabbi Jill Jacobs, executive director of Rabbis for Human Rights, whose members include rabbis from all streams of Judaism.
The Sojourners ad simply says, "Love your Muslim neighbors."
Another Christian group, United Methodist Women, an affiliate of the United Methodist Church, has placed similar ads in the same 10 Manhattan stations where the anti-jihad appears. The ads, which went up on Wednesday, say, "Hate speech is not civilized. Support peace in word and deed."
One of the Methodist group’s ads, in Times Square station, is posted right next to one of the anti-jihad ads.
on Tuesday, September 11, 2012
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) today released the second in a series of Islamophobe profiles documenting the individuals and organizations involved in spreading anti-Muslim bias in the United States.
This profile examines Pamela Geller, the "caustic mouthpiece" of the Islamophobia movement. She was cited today in an exclusive report by Reuters news agency exposing the American anti-Islam groups that support the extremist anti-Muslim views of Dutch politician Geert Wilders. Geller is also the person behind anti-Islam public advertisements going up in cities nationwide.
CAIR's profile of Geller states in part:
"Geller's organization Stop the Islamization of America (SIOA) is designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), which also named Geller as a member of the 'anti-Muslim inner circle.' The United States Patent and Trademark Office refused to grant SIOA a trademark because: 'The applied-for mark refers to Muslims in a disparaging manner because by definition it implies that conversion or conformity to Islam is something that needs to be stopped or caused to cease.'
"SIOA is an outgrowth of a similar group in Europe that seeks to block the construction of mosques on that continent. Its sister organization, Stop the Islamization of Europe, 'considers Islamophobia to be the height of common sense.'"
CAIR's Islamophobia Watch Department earlier produced a profile of David Yerushalmi, as well as an analysis of Rep. Peter King's anti-Muslim congressional hearings.
CAIR is America's largest Muslim civil liberties and advocacy organization. Its mission is to enhance the understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding.
CAIR press release, 10 September 2012
on Friday, September 7, 2012
WHITE PLAINS — As supporters held up signs protesting Islamophobia, a coalition of community leaders and residents gathered downtown Thursday to denounce anti-Muslim advertisements posted at Metro-North stations throughout Westchester County.
The coalition revealed its plan to counter the anti-Islamic campaign, calling on Metro-North to distance itself from the advertisement and donate revenue earned from its publication to an organization that combats extremism.
Paid for by the American Freedom Defense Initiative – a group led by Pamela Geller – the ads associate the religion of Islam with 19,250 terrorist attacks carried out by extremists since Sept 11, 2001. Printed in large block lettering on a dark background, an asterisk denotes that number is rising, and a slogan below reads: "It's not Islamophobia, it's Islamorealism."
"The bigotry and hate this ad directs at Muslims and Islam is totally unacceptable in Westchester or anywhere else," said Priscilla Read, a community activist who helped organize the event. "Our purpose is to raise awareness about what this ad represents, and mobilize action in support of our Muslim neighbors."
Geller told The Journal News the advertisments highlight the reality and magnitude of Islamic jihad and the mainstream media's cover-up of it.
Greenburgh Supervisor Paul Feiner called on the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to publicly denounce the signs, suggesting a disclaimer be placed on Metro-North platforms saying the agency does not support the advertisement.
Marjorie Anders, a spokeswoman for Metro-North Railroad, said it does not endorse the viewpoint expressed in the ad but refrains from banning advertising based on its message. Anders added that the railroad relies on advertising to generate revenue. MTA chairman and CEO, Joseph Lhota, has indicated the agency will discuss its policies on political ads later this month.
"When I first saw the word Islamorealism, I thought, 'Hey, maybe these people actually met some Muslims'," said Rev. Gawain de Leeuw of St. Bartholomew's Church in White Plains. "But I know these people. I know they are opportunists who seek to prey on the fears and worries of hard-working Americans. But what they don't know is that this will not work. Toleration is a part of our American DNA from the very beginning."
Journal News, 6 September 2012
See also "Metro-North billboards spark Islamophobia discussion", Newsday, 6 September 2012
on
Anti-Muslim organizer Pamela Geller has joined forces with Justice Department attorney and author, J. Christian Adams, in a scathing critique of a National Geographic Museum exhibit on the contributions of Muslim scientists, the Washington City Paper reports.
The exhibit, called "1,001 Inventions: Discover the Golden Age of Muslim Civilization," debuted at the Washington, D.C. museum in August and will stay through February. Featuring a video starring Academy-Award winning actor Ben Kingsley, as well as various interactive displays, "1,001 Inventions" aims to explore basic science principles in fields such as optics, time-keeping, hydraulics, navigation, architecture, and math, according to its website.
Geller recently posted an article on her popular blog, Atlas Shrugs, in which she called the exhibit "Islamist propaganda" and "fabricated."
The historical revisionism of the exhibit, Geller states, is effective and dangerous, subversively brainwashing America's school children, thousands of whom will doubtless flock to the award-winning collection during its stay in the capital.
"It has indoctrinated hundreds of thousands of children into a rosy and romanticized view of Islam that makes them less appreciative of their own culture's achievements and more complacent about Islamization in the West," Geller writes.
Huffington Post, 6 September 2012
on Wednesday, August 1, 2012
The leading figure in the SDL, who has acted as the group's spokesman, represented it at the EDL's Aarhus protest in March, and according to the Swedish anti-fascist magazine Expo has been directly involved in organising the Stockholm demonstration, is an individual named Isak Nygren. Although still only a young man, Nygren has already acquired some political notoriety in Sweden.
Back in 2008 Nygren reportedly applied for membership of the neo-Nazi Nordiska förbundet but eventually joined the Sweden Democrats, becoming an SD councillor in Katrineholm. Nygren's budding career in the party came to an abrupt end last year, however, when Expo published a comment he had posted on a discussion thread at a far-right internet forum that addressed the question "Why is race mixing bad?". Nygren stated: "I have no problem with whites, that is to say all those of European origin having children between them, but I would find it hard to see the positive side if there is a mixing with blacks, Asians, etc."
The roots of the SDL are in Swedish fascism but it has followed the trajectory of many organisations on the European extreme right by rebranding itself as a mainstream populist party. To that end the SD has dissociated itself from neo-Nazism and traditional skin-colour-based racism and concentrated on whipping up fear and hatred of "Muslim immigrants" instead. The party leadership took no action in 2010 when Expo revealed that Nygren had described Islam as a "violent paedophile cult", but the public exposure of his white supremacist sympathies undermined the SD's efforts to present a more moderate public image. They began expulsion proceedings against Nygren and he resigned from the party in protest.
Nygren is evidently not the only Swedish Defence League member who holds extremist views. The SDL's platform speaker in Stockholm, according to the EDL news report, is one Richard Abrams. He has a blog called Chamber of manifestation which shows him to be a fervent admirer of Nazi occultism. Along with the proud announcement that he will be representing the SDL at Saturday's rally, Abrams reports that "Me and some friends are fighting a struggle; RECLAIM THE SWASTIKA!" ("If you want US to respect OTHER cultures, you must also respect OUR culture and its symbols"). And just in case you were in any doubt where his political sympathies lie, Abrams reproduces a quotation from Nazi intellectual Alfred Rosenberg ("The old beliefs will be brought back to honor again. The whole secret knowledge of nature, of the divine, the demonic. We will wash off the Christian veneer and bring out a religion peculiar to our race. The religion of the blood").
It's also worth noting that the Swedish Defence League's Stockholm division has posted an advertisement for Saturday's demonstration on its Facebook page, accompanied by an illustration indicating that the SDL's main criticism of Norwegian mass murderer Anders Breivik is that his failure to bring enough ammunition to Utøya island prevented him carrying out even more killings.
So, in addition to allying themselves with an English Defence League that carries out violent assaults on leftist protestors in co‑operation with neo-Nazis and recently staged a demonstration threatening to burn down a proposed mosque, Geller and Spencer will be sharing a platform with a group that condemns "race mixing", campaigns for the swastika to be "reclaimed", admires a Nazi ideologist and backs a terrorist murderer.
on Thursday, July 19, 2012
New York City train commuters may soon see new anti-Islam advertisements on the city's Metro North line.
The American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI) created an ad campaign to raise awareness about Jihadist activities against Israel and the United States, highlighting the number of Islamist attacks since Sept. 11, 2001, and a growing number of deaths that have resulted.
"19,207 deadly Islamic attacks since 9/11/01 and counting," the ad reads. "It's not Islamophohia, it's Islamorealism."
The $15,000 campaign is a response to pro-Palestine ads. It will cover 75 station kiosks throughout the Metro North route for a four-week period.
"We wanted to bring some reality – because truth is a recognition of reality – we wanted to bring some truth to Metro North," said AFDI executive director Pamela Geller. "People need to understand the implications of the Islamization of America," she added.
Geller's group is already in litigation with the New York City Metro Transit Authority after the rail system rejected a different series of ads on the grounds that they violated its advertising standards – a move Geller is framing in terms of the First Amendment.
Geller is awaiting approval of her latest ads, and said she will take legal action again if necessary. If the new ads meet with the New York rail system’s approval, she hopes to take her message nationwide – starting on San Francisco's BART system.
on Sunday, July 15, 2012
Having confidently predicted that "thousands" would be marching with the English Defence League yesterday to protest against the "Islamification of Bristol", Pamela Geller has failed to explain why only a few hundred people turned out for what was advertised as a national mobilisation by the EDL.
Shifting her ground, she has now decided to emphasise the supposedly respectable, non-violent character of the EDL, reporting that they were "well-behaved" and "maintained a calm and peaceful assembly" during their Bristol protest (in contrast to their anti-fascist opponents, who Geller claims "trashed the city and assaulted police").
However, as you can see from the above photograph (via the Press Association), it was only the weight of police numbers (officers had to be drafted in from as far away as Yorkshire to allow the deployment of a 1,000-strong riot control force) that prevented the EDL from attacking their opponents.
On their way home from the march, and without a police presence to restrain them, the EDL were free to indulge in their proclivity for drunken violence, as is illustrated by this Facebook comment (via EDL News) from a witness who was, until then, an EDL supporter (and still shares their hatred of "scummy muslims").
You can understand why Geller might want to cover up the violent nature of the EDL. She and her friend Robert Spencer are jointly launching a "worldwide counter-jihad alliance" with this gang of drunken thugs in Stockholm next month.
And we're still waiting for Geller and Spencer to explain their support for an organisation that recently carried out an attack on a peaceful anti-monarchist protest in co-operation with the neo-Nazi, white supremacist and antisemitic National Front.
