NoisyRoom
By: Fern Sidman
An interview with Pamela Geller of the American Freedom Defense Initiative.
As the controversy continues to escalate over the placement of ads in New York City subways that call for a moral outcry against jihad and the pernicious deeds of radical Islamists around the world, Israel National News sat down with Pamela Geller, a co-founder of the American Freedom Defense Initiative, an organization that has spearheaded this ad campaign.
If Ms. Geller’s name sounds familiar, it is because she has been at the forefront of championing the cause of democracy, freedom, liberty and justice through her role as a leading blogger at “Atlas Shrugs,” a co-founder of “Stop the Islamization of America” and a prolific writer on the subject of the threat to the American value system that is represented by insidious encroachment of Sharia law in the Western world. Her latest book, “The Post-American Presidency: The Obama Administration’s War on America” which she co-authored with Robert Spencer of “Jihad Watch,” speaks to these very issues.
As a visible political activist and news commentator, Ms. Geller was an early driving force and an outspoken opponent of the proposed construction of Park51, also known as the “Ground Zero mosque,” which was to have been located only two blocks from the World Trade Center site in Lower Manhattan. Under her leadership, Ms. Geller inspired the “Campaign Offensive: Stop the 9/11 Mosque!” and other protests.
INN: We understand that the anti-Jihadist ads placed by the American Freedom Defense Initiative on New York City subways have generated much controversy. Your ad says, “”In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man. Support Israel. Defeat Jihad.” It also appeared in the San Francisco Rapid Transit System as well and was defaced, while disclaimers were placed on buses. Why, at this time, did you decide to place these ads and what message are you trying to communicate?
PG: I first attempted to place these ads in 2011 when an anti-Israel ad campaign was being running in the New York City subway system, although there was no controversy or opposition to those anti-Semitic ads. Our ad campaign was hung up by legal battles. Anti-Jewish ads are okay; anti-jihad ads are “offensive.” Once I won my First Amendment rights, the ads finally went up. I intended the ads as a response to the anti-Israel ad campaign.
The message is clear. Any war on innocent civilians is savage. The war on Israel is a war on innocent civilians. The relentless 60-year campaign of terror against the Jewish people is savage. The torture of hostage Gilad Shalit was savage. The bloody hacking to death of the Fogel family was savage. The Munich Olympic massacre was savage. The unspeakable torture of Ehud Goldwasser was savage. The tens of thousands of rockets fired from Gaza into southern Israel (into schools, homes, etc.) are savage. The vicious Jew-hatred behind this genocide is savage. The endless demonization of the Jewish people in the Palestinian and Arab media is savage. The refusal to recognize the state of Israel as a Jewish state is savage. The list is endless.
One of the many emails I have received in support of the ads was from the parent of a young victim in the massacre at Mercav HaRev Yeshiva in Jerusalem. Unimaginable inhumanity. Anyone who has a heart understands. The media and political elites aligned with the jihad force and whitewashed this horror. The objective of the campaign is to increase awareness of this unspeakable evil among good and decent people.
INN: Many anti-Israel ads have been placed in subway systems and buses throughout the nation, yet the First Amendment rights of free speech were granted to the groups that sponsored them. Can you tell us about your legal battles for free expression with the NYC MTA and the Washington, DC subway system and what is your reaction to Donna Lieberman’s statements at the ACLU? At this point, has the Washington, DC system agreed to place the ads?
PG: The NYC MTA refused the ads on the pretext that they were “demeaning.” This was struck down on First Amendment grounds. Obviously the idea that my ads are “demeaning,” but the anti-Israel ads weren’t, was politically motivated. Civilized men do not sanction jihad or the Islamic Jew-hatred that is commanded in the Koran. The response to our ads by anti-Israel and self-hating Jewish groups is expected. The silence of Zionist and pro-Israel organizations is enormously disappointing.
In D.C., they wanted to delay the ads for fear of violence from jihadists. But this, too, failed in court: in America we do not censor ourselves to kowtow to savages. Donna Lieberman said the ads were “patently offensive.” In reality, they’re offensive only to jihadist savages and their useful idiot non-Muslim defenders. Yes, D.C. has agreed to run the ads and they are running.
INN: I understand that a female Egyptian blogger has embarked on a crusade to deface the ads in the NYC subway. Do you have any information about this person and do you know if she is being sponsored by CAIR, or groups of that nature?
PG: Mona Eltahawy is a frequent analyst for CNN and Reuters. She is noted for having criticized Islam’s mistreatment of women in an article several months ago. Also, she was sexually assaulted in Tahrir Square last year by men she termed “beasts.” But now she is displaying full-on Stockholm Syndrome, identifying with her oppressors and furthering their agenda. Maybe she was trying to get back into the good graces of her Muslim Brotherhood friends who were angry about her article.
Hundreds of anti-Israel ads have run in every major city across this country. Not one was defaced. Ten little anti-jihad ads go up and every one of them destroyed. This is a physical manifestation of the entire conversation, or lack thereof. Anyone who speaks about jihad and Sharia is attacked, defamed, destroyed – just like these ads. This is exactly what’s happening in the media regarding jihad coverage in general. Anti-American, anti-Israel, pro-Sharia hate is all over the airwaves, but anyone who dares to speak the truth about Islam and jihad in the media is immediately smeared and defamed. You can’t have this conversation in the media, any more than I can present these pro-Israel ads and receive any semblance of fair treatment.
INN: Rep. Mike Honda (D) of California has taken a leading role in condemning your ad campaign. He asserts that he is an outspoken supporter of free speech and feels that the answer to “bad speech” is more speech. He has called for a boycott of WMATA. What are your thoughts on his position and why do you feel that he is wrong?
PG: Honda is a stooge of Islamic supremacist forces in the U.S. He has appeared with Islamic supremacist leaders and harshly criticized the King hearings on jihad activity in the United States. We are facing opposition from elected officials who have aligned themselves with the Muslim Brotherhood in the U.S., and with those who would undermine national security. I hope Honda’s constituents realize on election day how he is carrying water for Islamic supremacist enemies of free speech.
INN: Your call for support for Israel in the face of the burgeoning movement of radical Islam seems to be the most disturbing part of your ad for those who oppose it. Do you feel this is just the latest display in the campaign to demonize Israel and is this anti-Israel sentiment, in your view, being fostered by the strain in relations between the Obama administration and Israel?
PG: Yes, certainly. Obama has greatly emboldened leftists in their Jew-hatred. But it is more than that. It is the norming of Jew-hatred in the culture. The annihilationist rhetoric of Islamic supremacists is very much a part of the media and academic narrative.
INN: For those wishing to support Israel over savagery, as your ad suggests, how would you recommend that they go about it?
PG: Support Netanyahu. Vote out Obama and the Democrats. Act against anti-Israel propaganda in your local area. And contribute to our ad campaign as it goes national.
SPECIAL FEATURE from the GULAG
Video, “Pamela Geller on CNN: Erin Burnett cuts segment at Hamas-CAIR description,
AUDIO secretly taped“
Investigative Reported Paul Sperry Warned Us About The MUSLIM INFILTRATION OF WASHINGTON DC Back In 2004.
http://sperryfiles.com/
NOBODY HEEDED HIS WARNING.
THERE ARE NONE SO BLIND AS THOSE WHO WILL NOT SEE.
Andrew Klavan: How to Behave During an Islamic Massacre
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKerbOi_mrI&feature=player_embedded
Pamela is one gutsy woman and a brave American patriot. She is the canary in the mine… but is anybody listening? The danger of Islamic fanatics is getting zero coverage by the cowardly lapdog media. Atlas Shrugs and the internet New Media are the only places where the truth can be learned.
Islamic Jihad massacres, as hate crimes en-masse
Every Islamic terror act, anywhere, is a clear cut case of intolerance. It is always against the “other.”
True, by Islamic Jihad any infidel targets are fair-game. It’s just that some groups are easier targets than others, as “justification” are aided by propaganda, often backed by some radical liberals in the West. Such are many Muslim aggressors posing as “victims.” For instance, those Arab immigrants’ grandchildren, invaders in Jews’ Israel/Palestine who go by the title “Palestinians,” while some in the West really buy the notion that these mass-murderers (who hide behind civilians, to bring about casualties, to be used as trophies) are just about “Palestine-Arab-State,” ignoring or unaware of their real ethnic cleansing aims from the entire Holy Land.
Ethno-religious hatred classics:
Arab supremacy –derived from Koran, Koranic spirit and themes– especially resulting in enslaving Africans and Asians in the Arab world (often having the “inferior” non-Arabs as ‘sex-slaves’ as well) and the genocide in the Sudan (of already 3.5 million, since the 1950s) by a classic combination of Arab racism and Islamic Jihad. The same diabolical combination that “founded” (in the 1920s) the Arab Vs Israel “conflict,” by infamous Mufti who collaborated with the ultimate ‘racists’ – the WW2 Hitler/Nazis. Ever since, the ‘holy war’ against the Jews in the land has always been under the dual slogan of Allah Akbar and Itbach al-Yahud (AKA genocide). Leaving also behind, an inspired legacy of decades (and current) of ugly Nazi style cartoons in the hateful Arab press.
The Armenian Genocide 1915-23, was both: Turkish ethnic supremacy and an overall holy war against Christians. The same goes to Turkish anti-Greek and anti-Assyrian genocide. Totaling a combined 2.7 million Christian victims.
Ethno-Religious Moro-Muslims VS Philippines’ natives.
Ethno-Religious Malay-Muslims VS Thai natives.
Ethno-Religious Islamic-Hausa-Fulani VS Igbo Christians in Biafra Nigeria – 1960s-70s (3 million dead).
Current (2011-13) Boko Haram Islamic mass-murder campaign in that country, deepens the Ethno-Religious divide.
Farrakhan’s Nation of Islam Black-Muslim supremacy’s anti-White racism is deeply woven with radical Islamic vision. So were its linked Zebra murders in the 1970s and the Beltway snipers shootings in 2002.
Ethno-Religious “pure-Muslim” Pakistani VS Bangladeshi (regarded as the impure) genocide – 1971 (3 million dead).
Ethno-Religious “Palestinian” and Lebanese Muslims VS Christian Natives Maronites in Lebanon. 1970s-2000.
Iran-Iraq war – 1980s (a million victims – at least). Racism (Arab supremacy vs Aryan-Iranians) and “we are the true Muslims” motivation, on both sides.
Pakistani Sunnis and Shiites VS Ethno-Religious Ahmadis, resulting in mass violence. So is rampant anti-Ahmadi bigotry among “Palestinian” Arabs.
Ethno-Religious Muslim-Uighur VS Han native Chinese. Terror attacks (not just against government but against ordinary Chinese too) recorded.
Ethno-Religious Indonesian Muslims VS Chinese (1999 mass rape and murder) and VS native Catholics in E. Timor (200,000 victims).
One of the ardent supporters and admirers of Osama bin Laden, who celebrated 9/11 massacre, the pan-Arab, pan-Islamic AEL (Arab European League) founded by Arab Lebanese, former Hezbollah D. A. Jahjah, has been accused of inciting racism and violence in Belgium.
Ever since the bloody ‘Islamic theme of al-Aqsa’ intifada erupted (2000), Jews in Europe have been even an easier target to Islamic anti-Semitism, physical attacks and attempted ethnic cleansing. Such as by Arab/African Muslims in France; by Turkish/Iranian Muslims in Germany; by Arab-Muslims in the Benelux, Sweden and Norway. The kidnappers and torturers to death of Ilan Halimi to the sound of reciting the Koran (Paris, 2006) –for instance– were inspired by Hamas literature.
The (2012) Toulouse school massacre by Mohamed Merah of the Islamic hate group ‘Forsane Alizza,’ (NYT reported Jan/23/12, that its site was laced with hate posting, it typically claimed to be “fighting Islamophobia,” and the DailyTelegraph reported Mar/23/12, that in Jan/12, “Forsane Alizza was banned in France for inciting racial hatred,”) made sure to mention those “Palestinians.”
Likewise, Arabs in Latin America, have been targeting Jews.
The Pakistani Jihadi Lashkar-e-Taiba (“Army of the Pure”) in Mumbai (2008), aided by the ISI (Pakistan Spy Agency) specifically targeted Whites, and even more so the Jews.
Ethno-Religious Arab-Muslims VS native Coptic-Christians in Egypt, hate crimes still going on…
Ethno-Religious (mostly separated by origin/ethnicity as well) Shiite VS Sunnis, and vice versa in Iraq (Zarqawi argued that ‘Shia were more dangerous than the “Zionists and Crusaders,”‘ Egyptian Cleric said -Mar/09- “Shiites are worse than Jews,”) and in Pakistan.
Sunni Vs Alawites, Syria (al-Qaeda cleric’s Fatwa -Jul/12- calls Alawites, “greater infidels than the Christians and Jews”).
Bloodshed going on, full force.
A study about 2011 worldwide terror attacks -for example- found 70% of the (over 12,000) killings were perpetrated by Sunni Muslims. That includes: al-Qaeda, Taliban, and others.
Last point but not least: most “conflicts” and bloodshed around the globe today ARE correlated to Islamism.
Laura,
Your last statement is the absolute truth!! Where ever there is a sizable, not necessarily majority, population of muslims, violence becomes the way of life!!!