Pamela Geller: self-described `racist-Islamophobic-anti-Muslim-bigot’
The New York Times carried an interesting profile today of Pamela Geller, who has enjoyed great success in whipping up fear and hatred of Islam through her opposition to the Islamic cultural center planned for a site near the World Trade Center. The paper reported:
Operating largely outside traditional Washington power centers — and, for better or worse, without traditional academic, public-policy or journalism credentials — Ms. Geller, with a coterie of allies, has helped set the tone and shape the narrative for a divisive national debate over Park51 (she calls the developer a “thug” and a “lowlife”). In the process, she has helped bring into the mainstream a concept that after 9/11 percolated mainly on the fringes of American politics: that terrorism by Muslims springs not from perversions of Islam but from the religion itself. Her writings, rallies and television appearances have both offended and inspired, transforming Ms. Geller from an Internet obscurity, who once videotaped herself in a bikini as she denounced “Islamofascism,” into a media commodity who has been profiled on “60 Minutes” and whose phraseology has been adopted by Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin.
Her approach to Muslims – she calls herself a “racist-Islamophobic-anti-Muslim-bigot” – ought to strike any Catholic familiar with Vatican II’s statements on Islam and subsequent papal teachings as obviously wrong. But many Catholics have signed on to her agenda, including some Catholic politicians.
I could have done without some of the Times’s reportage on Geller’s marital history or her bikini. What caught my interest were a few paragraphs deep into the article about how Geller became involved in the 2007 campaign to oust Debbie Almontaser, a Muslim woman known for her involvement in intercultural dialogue, from serving as principal of an Arabic-themed public school in Brooklyn. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission determined this year that the city’s Department of Education “succumbed to the very bias that creation of the school was intended to dispel and a small segment of the public succeeded in imposing its prejudices on D.O.E. as an employer.” According to The Times story, “It was this victory, critics say, that emboldened Ms. Geller’s circle and set it on a path to national influence.”
Nothing seems more threatening to Geller and her associates than a Muslim known for bringing people together. Her campaign against the Islamic cultural center was a large-scale version of the effort against Almontaser – propelled forward in both cases by the New York Post. The main difference was that when there was strong pressure to deny the Islamic center developers’ constitutional rights, Mayor Michael Bloomberg found the courage he lacked when his administration went along with the smear against Almontaser.
“And Jesus wept.”
She’s a true, blue bigot. I wonder at the Times giving her so much free and not-all-that-critical coverage–just one of those rich, East Side divorcees indulging in her hobby.
Well, the Almontaser case happened in 2007. Maybe the Mayor has changed his mind after further reflexion. It happens
The Times did not mention that Geller is also an ardent, even fanatic, supporter of the West Bank Settlements.
“an Arabic-themed public school in Brooklyn”
What in the world is “an Arabic-themed public school”? What is its special function? Is it any different than a hypothetical “Muslim-themed public school”? Are there any “Hebrew-themed public schools” in Brooklyn?
I fear we give way too much PR to the Gellers of the world, the minister who wanted to burn the Koran, etc.
Of course the crazy right loves this stuff and Fox Propaganda gives it lots of play too.
Joe J. is right!
And then there is also the “loyalty oath” being pushed by Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman requiring new citizens to pledge allegiance to Israel as “a Jewish and democratic state.” Thankfully, there are some Jewish Knesset members who oppose this measure, but it’s unclear if they and non-Jewish legislators will have the votes to block it.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/oct/10/israel-jewish-oath-new-citizens
P. Flanagan: “Arab-Themed” is not quite what I remember. More like Arab-language and culture orientation. Yes, there is such a Hebrew oriented school; also in Brooklyn as I recall. Though it may be one of the Charter Schools there that Paul Moses has written about before.
On the Geller story in the Times: Having now read it again, there is some of the celebrity treatment underlying it–and the freak show quality that shows up in entertainment news. But given her statements and views, I want to ask, if this woman was a Muslim talking this way about Americans and Jews, wouldn’t she be charged with being a terrorist? Does the FBI have her on its radar screen? Or is she a First Amendment-protectee?
Like Margaret and Bob, I was dismayed at the amount of ink expended on this woman and her bigoted views. She struck me as a lady who lunches and who also dabbles in the look at me, look at me, I want to be noticed brigade. Just wish that the newspaper of record didn’t give her such a big spread.
I have to say, the idea that the likes of Pamela Geller should not be covered in stories like this strikes me as astoundingly, well, I can’t think of a charitable word. I mean, you want to let folks like this continue their predations without any scrutiny? You want pols to continue their careers without scrutiny? You want all manner of noxious characters to continue to mislead people with no accountability? That seems like a recipe for an uninformed populace and a poorer society, in many ways.
I recognize there is a truly manic obsession with critiquing the New York Times no matter what it publishes, but perhaps the better critique is that the newspaper should have covered Geller earlier.
Palin, Geller, Limbaugh, Hannity etc, all demagogues making a buck on popular fears. Basically nationalistic, but in the end serve as puppets for whomever will pay them the most. For sure there are liberals who are opportunists also.
WC: The “loyalty oath” was approved by the cabinet. Will this be the trading card for one last settlement moratorium, never to be asked for again by the U.S. Here is Juan Cole’s take on it: http://www.juancole.com/2010/10/israel-declares-for-ethnic-nationalism.html
David: We should all know about Geller. Did the Times tell us everything we should know? I don’t think so.
For example: “Text of Pamela Geller’s remarks at Pro-Israel Rally, NYC April 25, 2010
“First of all, I want to thank my Yid Army for showing up. I love my Yid Army! Thank you so much for coming out in the rain. And thank you, Beth, for putting this together. I think it’s appropriate that it’s raining. There’s a reason why it’s raining. For the first time in American history, we have an anti-Israel president. His premise is false. The narrative is false. The Islamization of the narrative must stop. (Cheers) It must stop with the truth. And truth is the new hate speech. (Cheers)
“I ask you, what is a settler? I reject that term. I don’t want anyone ever to use it again. It’s a Jew living in the Jewish homeland. There are no settlers in Israel. What is the West Bank? It is not the West Bank. It is Judea – Jew-dea – and Samaria. There is no occupation except the Muslim occupation of Israel. (Cheers)”
Read the rest here: http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2010/04/unabridged-text-of-pamela-gellers-speech-at-proisrael-rally-against-obamas-antiisrael-policies.html
Continued: What would George Orwell Say about: “truth is the new hate speech”?
The bikini scene is pure narcissim. Fitting I suppose as we are definitely in a narcissistic age.
1- Ignorance; 2 – Fear; 3 – Contempt; 4 – Violence. I’d guess that Ms. Geller et ilk have got their followers somewhere between 3 and 4 on the “Hate a Minority Scale”.
P. Flanagan asks:
What in the world is “an Arabic-themed public school”? What is its special function? Is it any different than a hypothetical “Muslim-themed public school”? Are there any “Hebrew-themed public schools” in Brooklyn?
The answer is that the Arabic language and Arab culture are a special theme in the school (but not Islam; in fact, the school is named for Khalil Gibran, a Christian). The NYC public school system does have a Hebrew-themed school. It happens to be located in a former yeshiva building but, again, it is not a Jewish school, but a school that emphasizes Hebrew. If you have questions about the wisdom of all this, I don’t blame you.
Also: David responds to those who criticize the Times for giving so much attention to Geller, saying the more valid criticism is that the paper should have covered her sooner. I agree with David on this. In fact, the initial lack of coverage in the Times was a big factor in what happened to Debbie Almontaser. The field belonged to papers that covered the story in a biased way, ignoring that Almontaser was widely respected for working to bring people together.
Here is a brief account of the Debbie Almontaser story:
“Debbie Almontaser took the helm of New York City’s first Arabic-language school, the Khalil Gibran International Academy, in 2006. Ms. Almontaser, a career educator and community activist, arrived with a reputation as a Muslim moderate, but she quickly came under fire by vocal critics of the school.
“Ms. Almontaser stepped down as the school’s founding principal in August 2007 amid a furor that erupted after she was quoted in The New York Post defending the use of the word “intifada” on a T-shirt. She later claimed that she had been forced to resign by the office of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.
“The United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission found in March 2010 that the New York City Department of Education had discriminated against Ms. Almontaser and “succumbed to the very bias that creation of the school was intended to dispel and a small segment of the public succeeded in imposing its prejudices on D.O.E. as an employer.”
“The findings, which are nonbinding, could mark a turning point in Ms. Almontaser’s battle to reclaim her job as principal of the school.
“The commission asked the Department of Education to reach a “just resolution” with Ms. Almontaser and to consider her demands, which include reinstatement to her old job, back pay, damages of $300,000 and legal fees. Should the two sides fail to reach an agreement, the dispute will end up in court, Ms. Almontaser’s lawyer said.”
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/a/debbie_almontaser/index.html?scp=1&sq=Deborah%20Almontaser&st=cse