Pamela Geller: The free citizens' Person of the Year

Time Magazine offered the deceitful Islamic supremacist pro-Sharia Ground Zero Mosque Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf as a candidate for Person of the Year.

NBC named Sharif El-Gamal, the thuggish and financially shady Ground Zero Mosque developer, who says that beating people up brings "exercise & stress relief," as its Person of the Year.

The deception, the ties to jihad terror groups, the deadbeat financial activity -- none of it matters. The mainstream media wants to make these people into heroes and sell you the Ground Zero mega-mosque, whether you like it or not.

Although more and more people are onto the game, the mainstream media still controls the narrative to a tremendous degree. So when the viciously dishonest Leftist pseudo-journalist Rachel Slajda says that "people like Pamela Gellar [sic] and Robert Spencer, who for years had been screaming about the dangers of Islam from the fringe, were suddenly front and center," in a certain sense she is reflecting (maybe for the first time in her illustrious career as a journalist/propagandist) an actual fact: Rauf and El-Gamal are lauded by Time and NBC, Geller and Spencer are not. And when someone from our side does make it into a mainstream media outlet, it is in an adversarial context that contrasts sharply with the kid-gloves adulation accorded to the Islamic supremacists: just compare the New York Times profiles of Pamela Geller and Daisy Khan, both penned in part by the Times' Anne Barnard, who is clearly (and unsurprisingly) yet another hard-Left ideologue whose prejudices color her reporting.

And when I appeared on Christiane Amanpour's show on ABC with Khan and Reza Aslan, Amanpour's stacking of the deck was obvious -- Douglas Murray characterizes it this way: "In October, the debate reached one of its nastiest points with an over-booked and badly-chaired studio discussion-cum-slanging-match on ABC. Daisy Khan, the wife of the imam of the proposed mosque, Feisal Abdul Rauf, was one of those who appeared on Christiane Amanpour's panel. The anti-building side were repeatedly defamed. Robert Spencer of the Jihad Watch blog was accused by one of the other guests of being in league with neo-Nazis and was not allowed to respond." Indeed, my mic was actually cut off.

And so yes, in that sense, Rauf and El-Gamal and Khan are mainstream, and Geller and I are not: that is, their views are acceptable in the mainstream, and ours are not. But in a larger sense, we are actually much more mainstream than they are. Our views on the Ground Zero Mosque reflect those of 70% of Americans; that's why Leftist journalists like Amanpour and Barnard, and even discreditable hacks like Slajda, have to work so hard to portray us as "fringe": they don't have the truth on their side, and they don't have the people on their side. They can't win on an even playing field, so they have to tilt the playing field. For actually, there is nothing "fringe" about either Geller or me, and we have never been on the "fringe," much as this has become a new talking point of the Leftist media, echoed by the ever-derivative Aslan. I am such a fringe character that two books I've written have become New York Times bestsellers: The Truth About Muhammad and The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades), and I've led seminars on Islam and jihad for the United States Central Command, the FBI, the Joint Terrorism Task Force, and more, and have spoken at universities all over the country. As for Pamela Geller, she was so "fringe" before the mosque controversy that she had been featured several times on the Joy Behar Show, Fox's Hannity and Red Eye, and other shows, and had conducted interviews over the years with people such as John Bolton, Geert Wilders, Bat Ye'or, Benjamin Netanyahu, Mark Steyn, Steve Emerson, Christopher Hitchens, Natan Sharansky and many others.

Anyway, this is just the game they play, because they know they can't win a fair fight. And it is important for free people to see through their game, and to refuse to accept it. Rauf and El-Gamal and Khan, with their lies, their Islamic supremacist ties, and worse, are the real "fringe characters," whose views are held only by a small minority of Americans. And Pamela Geller, who has led the fight to expose them and stop them from building a triumphal mosque at Ground Zero, is the actual Person of the Year. And so we come to Lou Comunale. Lou Comunale took matters into his own hands and named Pamela Geller the real Person of the Year. Here is his explanation for his award, from his Facebook page:

THE LOU-NEWS 2010 PERSON OF THE YEAR

Blurred vision seems to be creeping up on aging America. At times the nation seems to be unable to discern right from wrong anymore. The generations being spawned today are not only unable to distinguish between good and evil, but they even seek to fight against Godly principles and moral traditions. And they think they're doing right.

This blurring of moral absolutes affects the media too. When national news media (Time Magazine, NBC & CNN, for instance) considers nominating Sharia Law-promoter, Ground Zero Mosque Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf as Person of the Year, we as a nation are in trouble.

When mainstream media promotes anti-heroes as objects of honor, it is refreshing to balance the scales again and promote real heroes in a world increasingly intolerant against what is good and decent.

My standard for promoting a Person of the Year is one who is making a positive difference in the world, to the point that the person should not only be honored but emulated. The Person of the Year should be one who, in the face of increasing hostility against America's Judeo-Christian heritage and culture, continues to protect and defend our God-given freedoms for the benefit of all.

In an age when Sharia Law is gaining ground around the world, it's important to note Ronald Reagan's words when he said: "Freedom is a fragile thing and is never more than one generation away from extinction. It is not ours by inheritance; it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation, for it comes only once to a people. Those who have known freedom, and then lost it, have never known it again."

The honor of this year's Person of the Year Award goes to one who has made herculean strides in protecting our freedoms and fighting the good fight, Pamela Geller.

The story of Pamela Geller is the story of what one person with a website (atlasshrugs.com) can do in the face of insurmountable opposition against truth and righteousness.

For instance, Pamela's latest triumph was in the city of Seattle. Can you imagine any anti-Semite in this day and age purchasing anti-Israel bus ads and any city accepting them? It happened in the state of Washington recently with this ad:

War crimes? I think not. Israel is constantly in a state of protecting itself from hostile neighbors. So, what did Pamela do? She decided to put up her own ads to counter the rhetoric.

The Seattle Transit Authority was in a bind. To avoid a hypocritical stance by not accepting her ads and to avoid the escalation of unnecessary friction by accepting the ads, they rejected the anti-Israel ads entirely, which was set for the next week.

Success.

Turning the head on politically correct arguments is her specialty. In this way, the inherent bias and ungodliness within the politically correct posture is exposed.

But week after week, Pamela unmasks the leftist radicals, stealth jihadists, & biased media in a potpourri of clever reportage and hard-hitting exposés sprinkled with biting humor.

Do you remember Rifqa Bary, the young Muslim-turned-Christian girl whose parents wanted to kill her for converting to Christianity? Thanks to Pamela's beating the drum and calling for protest rallies - and despite the dishonest reporting of the mainstream media - a clearer picture emerged as to the dangers facing Rifqa. And now, upon turning 18, free from the threat of honor killing, Rifqa has vowed to "preach the word to all the nations."

Another success.

It has been claimed that Pamela Geller was the one who made the Ground Zero Mosque story national news and, as a result of exposing the plans of stealth jihadists in the US, has come under such increasing opposition and actual death threats.

Fearless in the face of danger, protecting the common good, this is why I'm nominating Pamela Geller as Person of the Year.

You might, like me, pray for her protection and for her colleague Robert Spencer for all the work they undertake to preserve our Judeo-Christian heritage and to keep truth and freedom alive in America.

The reason for this pick is to encourage us all to be like Pamela Geller - because, if we all spoke out against unrighteousness, the forces that would try to derail this country would not be allowed to flourish.

Blessings, Pamela!