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No FBI response to Pam Geller?
puppylove_sugarsteel
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Pamela Geller
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Pamela Geller
Pamela Geller 2011.jpg
Geller in 2011
Born June 14, 1958 (age 56)[1]
Hewlett Harbor, New York, U.S.[2]
Residence New York City, New York, US[1]
Other names Pamela Oshry
Alma mater Hofstra University; left before completing degree[1]
Occupation Political activist, commentator, former newspaper editor
Organization Co-founder of Freedom Defense Initiative and Stop Islamization of America[3]
Known for Opposition to Park51 community center and mosque
Notable work The Post-American Presidency: The Obama Administration's War on America, with Robert Spencer[4]
Home town Hewlett Harbor, New York[1]
Spouse(s) Michael Oshry (1990–2007; divorced)[1]
Children 4
Parent(s) Reuben and Lillian Geller[1]
Website
www.pamelageller.com
Pamela Geller (born June 14, 1958)[5] is an American political activist[6] and commentator. She is known for her anti-Islamic positions and opposition to Islamic activities and causes, such as the proposed construction of an Islamic community center near the former site of the World Trade Center. Her viewpoints have been described as anti-Islamic[7] or Islamophobic.[1][8] She says her blogging and campaigns in the United States are against what she terms "creeping Sharia" in the country. She is described as a critic of radical Islam[9] and self-described as opposing political Islam.[1]
She is currently the president of the American Freedom Defense Initiative which she co-founded with Robert Spencer.[10][11] The American Freedom Defense Initiative has been designated an anti-Muslim hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, an organization known for tracking hate groups.[12] The British government designated Geller's organizations hate groups and barred Geller's entry into the UK in 2013.[7] She and Spencer co-authored the book The Post-American Presidency: The Obama Administration's War on America in 2010.[4]
The Huffington Post has called her "far right", as have other media sources[1] while others, such as the BBC contrast her right-wing support for small government with her socially liberal positions.[13]
Contents [hide]
1 Personal life
2 Career
3 Views
4 Stop Islamization of America
4.1 Park51
4.2 Paid ads on public transit
4.3 Curtis Culwell Center attack
5 Atlas Shrugs blog
6 Media response
7 Works
7.1 Books
8 See also
9 References
10 External links
Personal life
Geller is the third of four sisters born to the Jewish[14] family of Reuben, a textile manufacturer, and Lillian Geller.[1] She grew up in Hewlett Harbor, in New York's Long Island.[15]:136 She helped out in her father's business, where she learned to speak fluent Spanish.[16] Two of her sisters became doctors, and the third became a teacher.[1]
Geller attended Lynbrook High School and Hofstra University, though she left before completing her degree.[1]
She was married to Michael Oshry from 1990 until the couple divorced in 2007, and is the mother of four children.[1] As of April 2013 she was living in Hewlett, New York.[17]
Career
Geller spent most of the 1980s working at the New York Daily News, first as a financial analyst and then in advertising and marketing.[18] Subsequently she was associate publisher of The New York Observer from 1989 through 1994.[19]
In a Village Voice interview, Geller attributed the advent of her political consciousness to the 9/11 attacks.[20] She created a blog called Atlas Shrugs in 2004. (The title of the blog recalls Atlas Shrugged, a novel by Ayn Rand, and perhaps aligns with the novel's themes and philosophy.) The blog gained thousands of readers in 2006 when Geller reprinted the controversial cartoons of Muhammad originally published in the Jyllands-Posten.[1] In 2007, her campaign against an Arabic language public school in Brooklyn played "an important role" in the resignation of its principal, Debbie Almontaser.[1]
In 2010 Geller co-founded the American Freedom Defense Initiative organization (FDI) with Robert Spencer.[1] She also co-authored a book with Spencer, The Post-American Presidency: The Obama Administration's War on America (published in July 2010).[4] The book criticizes the Obama administration's treatment of the free-market system, freedom of speech, and foreign policy. She is also a contributor to the conservative magazine Human Events.[21]
Speaking on jihad at the 2010 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), Geller criticized the Pentagon's report on the 2009 Fort Hood shooting for failing to talk about the religious motivations behind the attack.[22] Geller, who had spoken at the annual CPAC convention four years previous, was forbidden to appear in 2013.[23] Geller attributed her exclusion from the event to her having accused CPAC board members Grover Norquist and Suhail Khan of being "members of the Muslim Brotherhood and secret Islamist agents."[24] Reacting to CPAC's decision to exclude Geller, Mark Steyn called her a "fearless fighter on free speech" and said that he took the board's action "personally."[25]
In April 2013, Rabbi Michael White and Jerome Davidson, denouncing Geller as an anti-Muslim bigot, opposed her presentation on Sharia law at a Long Island synagogue, which was eventually canceled due to security concerns.[26] Israeli journalist Caroline Glick argued that White and Davidson were wrong; Geller opposes jihadists, not all Muslims.[27]
In May 2013, the Jewish Defense League of Canada invited Pamela Geller to speak in Toronto, Canada. Initially, Geller was invited by Rabbi Mendel Kaplan to speak at Chabad@Flamingo. Because Kaplan was a chaplain with the York Regional Police, the police's Hate Crimes Unit stated that Kaplan's invitation conflicted with "our long-held position of inclusivity". Kaplan consequently uninvited Geller, and she spoke at the Toronto Zionist Centre.[28]
She is a supporter of the English Defence League (EDL) saying: "I share the EDL's goals ... We need to encourage rational, reasonable groups that oppose the Islamisation of the west."[29] In June 2013, Geller was scheduled to speak at an EDL rally,[6] but was barred from entering Britain by a Home Office ruling that describes her as having established "anti-Muslim hate groups".[7] Cited as evidence for the ban were statements categorizing al-Qaeda as "a manifestation of devout Islam" and stating that jihad requires Jews as an enemy.[30] Geller called the decision "a striking blow against freedom ... The nation that gave the world the Magna Carta is dead." Hope not Hate, which led a campaign to ban her, applauded the decision as a proper limit to "unfettered free speech".[7]
Views
Geller opposes both political Islam[1] and radical Islam.[9][17][14] [31] Geller has said of herself that she has "no problem with Islam. I have a problem with political Islam."[1] In particular, she says jihadism is a threat to civilization.[14] After expressing her anti-jihad views in controversial subway ads[32] she was called an anti-Muslim bigot and racist by Muneer Awad of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.[33][34] Geller responded to such charges by noting that the ads weren't directed at all Muslims but "only those who engaged in what she characterises as 'Jihad'."[35]
She was mentioned in Anders Behring Breivik's manifesto, however it later came to light that Breivik had intentionally portrayed himself as a counterjihadist and Zionist in order to trick the media into attacking these very people, and to cover up his true allegiance to “nordicists” and “ethnocentric nationalists” (i.e. neo-Nazis).[36] In a 2014 letter,[37] he stated "The idea was to manipulate the MSM [Main Stream Media] and others so that they would launch a witchhunt and send their media-rape-squads against our opponents. It worked quite well."
Critics believe she crosses the line from a focused criticism of Islamism to a broader hostility towards Islam in general. When she called for an official classification of Islam as "a political movement ... authoritarian and supremacist ... as well as a religion," the ADL responded that "[w]hile the threat of Islamic extremism is a legitimate concern, such a simplistic initiative fails to distinguish between the general Muslim population and extremists motivated by radical interpretations of Islam."[38] Geller repeatedly denies that she is categorically anti-Muslim.[1][17][39][40][41] Charles Jacobs says that Geller takes aim at "radical Islam," comes to the defense of victims of honor killings, and deals with Islamist antisemitism which the ADL and SPLC fail to address.[14] She has been described as "far right" by The Huffington Post, British newspaper The Guardian, investigative journalist Gary Weiss, and human rights activist Leonard Zeskind.[42][43] Zeskind also classified Geller as a radical right ideologue, racist, and Islamophobic.[15]:137[44]
Geller has said that "Islam is the most antisemitic, genocidal ideology in the world."[45][46][47][48] She holds the view that radical Islam is a bona fide variant of Islam, which she describes in a number of ways: "Muslim terrorists were practicing pure Islam, original Islam."[40][41] Terrorists don't spring from "perversions of Islam but from the religion itself"[1] "I believe in the idea of a moderate Muslim. I do not believe in the idea of a moderate Islam. ... I think a moderate Muslim is a secular Muslim."[1] She quotes the prime minister of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, "... there is no moderate Islam; there is no extreme Islam; Islam is Islam."[49] She argues that Islam must be secularized from within: "I believe most Muslims are secular. I don’t believe that most Muslims subscribe to devout fundamentalist Islam by any stretch of the imagination. And we need the secular Muslims to win the battle for the reformation of Islam."[49]
In economics she favors "right-wing" "small government" fiscal policies of cutting taxes and reducing budgets.[13][15]:137 She is "socially liberal" in her support of abortion legalization[1][2][20] and same-sex marriages[13][20] but she believes drug legalization goes "too far."[15]:130 Gary Weiss writes that Ayn Rand's philosophy of individualism is a major influence in her thought and life.[15]:129–137 Unlike Rand, Geller is a theist who defends the Judeo-Christian ethical tradition.[15]:134 In her rhetorical style, she shares Rand’s "verbal excesses" accompanied by a "willingness to provoke and offend."[15]:133–4
She encouraged Israel to "stand loud and proud. Give up nothing. Turn over not a pebble. For every rocket fired, drop a MOAB. Take back Gaza. Secure Judea and Samaria. Stop buying Haaretz. Throw leftists bums out."[50] She is an ardent Zionist.[39] She regards much of the Israeli media as "Jewicidal" and the kibbutz movement as a failed idea and a variety of slavery.[15]:133
Stop Islamization of America
Geller and Robert Spencer co-founded Stop Islamization of America.[11] Geller is a co-founder of Stop Islamization of Nations, an umbrella organization that includes Stop Islamization of America and Stop Islamisation of Europe.[51][52] Both SIOA and FDI are described as exhibiting anti-Muslim bigotry by the Anti-Defamation League.[26][53] The Southern Poverty Law Center classifies them as hate groups.[54] According to the Center, Geller is the "anti-Muslim movement's most visible and flamboyant figurehead. She's relentlessly shrill and coarse in her broad-based denunciations of Islam."[55] Geller has dismissed the SPLC as an "uber left" organization,[56] and in 2015 stated "Who designated the SPLC as a legitimate authority? They are a radical leftist group who targets patriots, vets and even GOP presidential candidates. They have never named a jihadi group as a hate group."[57]
Park51
In May 2010, they began a campaign against the proposed Park51 Islamic community center and mosque, which Geller called the "Ground Zero Mega Mosque".[58][59] She says that Park51 is viewed by Muslims as a "triumphal" monument built on "conquered land",[49] and said, "I'm not leading the charge against the Islamic center near Ground Zero. The majority of Americans—70%—find this deeply insulting, offensive. To call it anti-Muslim is a gross misrepresentation and to say that I'm responsible for all this emotion, again a gross misrepresentation".[60]
When asked in an August 17, 2010, interview on CNN whether she agreed "that the terrorists who attacked us on 9/11 were practicing a perverted form of Islam, and that is not what is going to be practiced at this mosque", she responded "I will say that the Muslim terrorists were practicing pure Islam, original Islam."[40]
Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, criticized Geller, stating:
People say don't give her too much credit, she's a fringe character, but she is a fringe character who every day is on CNN, Fox, The Washington Post, and The New York Times. She is the driving force behind the Islamic center campaign. I would say that she is the queen of the Muslim bashers, I see her rise and the rise of these anti-Islam hate groups going hand in hand.[18]
Eric Boehlert, a senior fellow at progressive[61] watchdog group Media Matters for America, concurred with Hooper, remarking that "she's been instrumental, she has whipped up hatred in the right-wing blogosphere and now that's spilled out into the wider community"[18] while Andrew C. McCarthy, writing in the conservative[62] magazine National Review, criticized Hooper's remarks on the matter, citing his controversial comments about Islamism and the United States.[41] Media Matters said "Geller's history of outrageous, inflammatory and false claims, particularly when it comes to issues related to Islam, demonstrate that she cannot be expected to make accurate statements and should not be rewarded with a platform on national television."[63]