Pamela Geller, Algemeiner OpEd: Defending the Defense of Freedom

Defending the Defense of Freedom Pamela Geller, Algemeiner

Over the last few days Fox News has featured its house liberal, Bob
Beckel, warning about the dangers of jihad terrorism and even saying
that Muslim students should be barred from entering the country (which,
incidentally, is something I have never advocated).

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The irony was thick. In 2010 I had a sharp exchange with Beckel
on Fox when he decried my work sounding the alarm about jihad terror
and Islamic supremacism in the U.S. The Boston jihad bombings have been a
gruesome, horrible wake up call, revealing how the American people
have been betrayed by the Obama Administration, the media and the
Homeland Security apparatus which, instead of dealing realistically
with jihad terror, has been fixated upon non-existent “right wing
terrorists” — like me.

Now, in a lengthy article entitled The Boston Marathon Bombing and America’s So-Called Faith Privilege in Tuesday’s Algemeiner, A. Jay Adler writes:

“Hateful rightwing extremists like Geller, and countless
of her type on social media, quickly, objectionably express themselves
immediately upon the occurrence of an event like the marathon bombing,
and a certain type of leftwing voice finds it more important to
establish the Gellers as mistaken and beyond the pale than to respond
directly and with clarity to the primary offense.”

Although Adler attacks me personally, the issue here is
larger than me or my work. Adler echoes leftists enablers of jihad and
Islamic supremacism by labeling their opponents “hateful,” “extreme”
and “rightwing” – as if defense of the freedom of speech and the
equality of rights for all people before the law were “rightwing.”

And last week, Bill Maher dared to go off the liberal
reservation and note that Islam incited more violence than Christianity
– whereupon his politically correct guest needled him with “I have a
girl for you, Pam Geller.” But Maher stood his ground and ultimately
said to his guest, “I should introduce you to Pam Geller” — thus
implying that I am right to be concerned about Islamic jihad and Islamic
supremacism.

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But that was an anomaly. The defenders of freedom have put
up with an appalling level of defamation in order to educate and warn
the American people about the gravest national security threat this
great country faces.

Our work is dedicated to human rights — the freedom of
speech, the freedom of conscience and individual rights. It is a noble
cause, a righteous cause. But the defamation of those who work for this
cause is a key weapon of leftists and Islamic supremacists. Just
recently leftist and Islamic supremacists mounted a smear campaign to
intimidate a synagogue in Great Neck, Long Island into dropping my
speaking appearance there. Fortunately, two other rabbis with spine
stood up to them and had me speak at their synagogues instead. But the
pattern was clear: the cancellation by the Great Neck Synagogue sent
the message that if leftists and Muslims defame those they hate loudly
enough and for a long enough time, they will succeed in getting them
silenced.

Key weapons in the arsenal of these foes of free speech
are the increasingly defamatory Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and the
notorious communist hate organization, the Southern Poverty Law Center
(SPLC). Both tar with the label “hate group” any organization that
differs from their political agenda. Not coincidentally, a follower of
the SPLC recently attempted to assassinate Family Research Council
(FRC) head Tony Perkins and other FRC officials because the SPLC had
smeared the FRC as a “hate group.” This shows that the real hatred and
incitement to violence come from the left – from the very groups that
smear counter-jihadists as “hateful.” Nonetheless, the mainstream media
constantly uses the smears from these groups to marginalize and
demonize the resistance to jihad terror.

And so it is with profound regret that despite our best
efforts, a monstrous Islamic attack took place on the streets of
Boston, targeting mothers and children, families and freedom-loving
people. The bombs were designed not to blow up buildings but to maim,
mutilate and tear through flesh and bone.

This was our worst nightmare.

A. Jay Adler claims to oppose the ideology of the Boston
jihad bombers; he cannot then consistently oppose counter-jihadists,
for our work is dedicated solely to defending individual rights against
the encroachment of that bloody ideology.

It is a sad day when free people turn against those who
are standing up most strongly for the Jews, Israel, and freedom in
general. But unfortunately, this problem is pandemic. Even now, in
light of the Boston jihad horror, my colleagues and I have been largely
bypassed for newly minted experts like Beckel, who have no
understanding of these issues. Bill O’Reilly still gives a platform to
the Hamas-tied Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), allowing
them to deceive the American people and proselytize for Islam. The
blacklist on consistent and well-informed voices of freedom must end.
Now.

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