Pamela Geller:  “Loving” Muslims With “Full Metal Jackets”

by Sheila Musaji

As I was writing an article about Robert Spencer and Pamela Geller’s using the 4th of July to spread Islamophobia, there was a new development in the story.  At first, I simply posted an update to the original article, but it truly deserves to be noted separately.

Pamela Geller, Robert Spencer’s partner in the hate group SIOA seems to also have used the opportunity of a speech to a Tea Party group at Independence Hall in Philadelphia to bash Muslims.  She posted a video of this on her site, and with much trepidation, I watched the entire hateful thing.  Her entire speech was an attempt to convince her listeners that Islam is “our” enemy, and Muslims are “the other”.  She managed to work in most of her favorite memes:

— I am against the most radical and extreme ideology on the planet [Islam]
— I’m a human rights activist
— Truth is the new hate speech
— Calling me an extremist is a smear
— I love Muslims
— The battle is individualism versus collectivism, we fought socialism, then communism and fascism, now it’s Islam
— I don’t believe tolerance should be applied to evil
— We are living under a regime [Pres. Obama] whose basic premise is anti-Freedom
— Obama has ushered in an era of Islamic supremacists
— The Dept. of Justice has become the defacto legal arm of the Muslim Brotherhood groups in this country
— There is a leftist/Islamic alliance attempting to take away our freedoms
— There is an enemy within and an enemy without

And, what should her listeners do about this terrible state of affairs?

“You’d better come full metal jacket, fully armed.  The American response to overbearing authority is defiance.”

It will be interesting to watch the comment thread on this post to see exactly how her listeners understand “full metal jacket, fully armed”.  Just in case there was some slang meaning for “full metal jacket”, I looked it up, and the only meaning it has is a lead bullet that is covered with a jacket of a harder metal (usually copper), a projectile that is fired from a gun. 

Exactly what type of an event are participants invited to that will require such weapons? 

It’s not difficult to guess who it is that Geller would like for these projectiles to be fired at. 

Geller and Spencer insist that they (or the rest of their Islamophobia network) don’t engage in broadbrush demonization of Muslims, or in incitement to violence, but that is demonstrably false as proven in the article Spencer, Geller, et al’s “Defense”: Sound and Fury Signifying Nothing.  To understand Geller’s “love” for Muslims, see Pamela Geller:  Love or pathological hatred towards Muslims?.  To understand Geller’s “truth is the new hate speech” statement see Pamela Geller & Robert Spencer’‘s Tenuous Grasp of the Concept of “Truth Telling” and also Spencer, Geller, Yerushalmi, Gaffney: Attempt to Conceal Evidence of “Truth-Telling”. To understand Geller’s ability to tell a “plot”  from a hole in the ground see Islamophobes See “Jihad” Everywhere.  For responses to past false claims about Islam and Muslims see What everyone “knows” about Islam and Muslims.

Prior to Geller’s speech, she posted an article on WND The leftist thugs’ war on free speech in which she claimed that Occupy protestors and other leftists/Islamists were threatening her event, and therefore people should send money for the “extra security” that she needed to pay for.  As usual, the “extra security” was not needed, and no one threatened her free speech. 

Prior to her cancelled event at the Jewish Federation in Los Angeles, she made the same claims about threats and needing people to send her money for the “extra security” needed.  No Muslims even picketed the venue.  There were only 4 protestors, all of them Jewish women.  Again, no security needed.

I wonder if Geller actually hires any security at all, let alone any “extra security”, and what she does with the funds raised for this purpose?

Normally, Geller and Spencer cross post each others articles within an hour or so.  However, Geller posted this video of her speech at 9:45 this morning, and it has still not appeared on Spencer’s site as of 4:36 in the afternoon.  This has happened before when she posts something that is so far outside the bounds of decency that even Robert Spencer doesn’t want to be connected with the craziness.

There is a reason that many, even outside of the Muslim community see such demonization of Muslims as Islamophobic.  There is a reason that the ADL (A Jewish anti-defamation group) has said that Pamela Geller & Robert Spencer’s Stop the Islamization of America (SIOA) is a “group that promotes an extreme anti-Muslim agenda”.   There is a reason that The Southern Poverty Law Center has designated SIOA as a hate group, and that they are featured in the SPLC reports Jihad Against Islam and The Anti-Muslim Inner Circle.  There is a reason that Geller and Spencer are featured prominently in the Center for American Progress “Fear Inc.” report on the Islamophobia network in America.  There is a reason that Geller is featured in the People for the American Way Right Wing Playbook on Anti-Muslim Extremism.  There is a reason that Geller is featured in the NYCLU report Religious Freedom Under Attack:  The Rise of Anti-Mosque Activities in New York State.  There is a reason that Geller is featured in the Political Research Associates report Manufacturing the Muslim menace: Private firms, public servants, and the threat to rights and security.  There is a reason that the SIOA’s trademark patent was denied by the U.S. government due to its anti-Muslim nature.  There is a reason that they are featured in our TAM Who’s Who of the Anti-Muslim/Anti-Arab/Islamophobia Industry.  There is a reason that Geller is featured in just about every legitimate report on Islamophobia and anti-Muslim hatred. 

These people consistently promote the what everyone “knows” lies about Islam and Muslims.  They generalize specific incidents to reflect on all Muslims or all of Islam.   When they are caught in the act of making up or distorting claims they engage in devious methods to attempt to conceal the evidence.

The claim that “truth tellers” are being accused of Islamophobia for no reason other than their legitimate concerns about real issues and that in fact there is not even such a thing as Islamophobia is nonsense.  The further claim that the fact that there are fewer hate crimes against Muslims than against Jews also proves that Islamophobia doesn’t exist is more nonsense. 

The reason that this is so obvious to so many is that rational people can tell the difference between legitimate concerns and bigoted stereotypes.   The Islamophobia of these folks is very real, and it is also strikingly similar to a previous generations’ anti-Semitism.