There is circulating around the blogosphere an "Open Letter to Pamela Geller," attacking my SIOA colleague for her concerns about the EDL. Pamela Geller has responded in great detail here, and since I am in full agreement with the statement that precipitated this attack, I feel it incumbent upon me to respond also. In fact, when Pamela first crafted her statement about the EDL, before she published it she asked me what I thought of it, and I suggested that she add a few thoughts -- which she did. So the statement as it stands represents as much my sentiments as hers. It was SIOA's position.
What is unaccountable is that this "Open Letter" was published after the appearance of EDL chief Tommy Robinson's statement yesterday, which addressed as valid the very concerns Pamela raised -- the ones that the "Open Letter" claims are baseless and defamatory.
So what is the agenda here? This is just the latest in a series of unwarranted and unjustifiable attacks by Gates of Vienna and other signers of this "Open Letter" on Pamela Geller and me. It is always dispiriting when professed anti-jihadists fight against other anti-jihadists instead of against the jihadists, and Gates of Vienna and other sites allied with it have been doing that for quite some time. I guess for some people, gaining market share by denigrating more effective warriors is more important than fighting the actual war. But particularly revealing here is the fact that, as Pamela notes below, some of those who are shown as signing the "Open Letter" never approved the use of their names at all. It looks as if these puffed-up self-styled machiavellis and self-righteous, short-sighted purveyors of friendly fire are getting desperate.
Here is Pamela's post:
I am a longtime, original supporter of the English Defence League from the very first demo in 2009, before anyone would touch them with a ten-foot pole – even this group of keyboard warriors. No one in America has taken as much heat as I have for supporting the EDL. No one. My defense of the EDL is constantly used to defame me, and I have never faltered in my support of the group. When I speak at universities, I am routinely challenged about the EDL (an example is at minute 4:45 of this video). CAIR includes the EDL in every press release on me; the Southern Poverty Law Center uses it all the time. The Guardian, Newsweek, and the New York Times mentioned it in their articles about me. Notorious blogger Max Blumenthal at the Huffington Post have even gone so far as to call the EDL “Atlas’s Thugs.” And I never wavered.From their first demo, when they were denounced and smeared as the scum of the earth, I knew the EDL was noble and true. I still believe that. I still believe that the majority of the membership are good and decent and fine people. The issue for some time has been certain elements in the administration. There will always be infiltrators and plants who get into the membership. But it is important to keep the admins clean.
This is an ongoing problem, and hardly a secret. It was most obviously acknowledged in yesterday’s statement by the leader of the EDL, Tommy Robinson. He said: “We repudiate any individual, group or writing that favors anti-Semitism, neofascism, and any race-based ideology. Any rogue elements within the EDL who go against our mission statement and our beliefs will be removed from the organization; we are determined to remain true to our mission. Anti-Semitism will not ever be tolerated within the EDL.”
And there is anti-Semitism in the EDL now. This is much bigger than Roberta Moore. She is just the tip of the spear. It is not going away with her resignation, as evidenced by the anti-Semitic comments at Atlas (here and here) and elsewhere, and the attacks on the EDL’s Jewish division as a whole. The Open Letter complains that I adduced no evidence, but in fact the evidence is available for everyone to see. As one commenter wrote at Atlas:
I can not see how Pamela's comment has in any way damaged her reputation because what has been said is true. I shouldn't think Pamela stands alone on this, lets not forget, the areas of EDL conversation have been open to public viewing for a long while, ie the forums and facebook. The content has been there for all to see. No doubt there are many others who have witnessed the downward spiral. It is to be expected that some members will crawl out off woodwork armed with their own twisted version of events. You may fool some but not all. There has been, for quite some time, a concerted effort by a main core of ruthless people, and one person in particular springs to mind, who has been a huge driving force behind a crusade to disband the Jewish Division. Come what may, there were absolutely determined to oust Roberta and then to disband the Jewish Division, not satisfied with that, they also would like to see the LGBT Division ousted as well as other divisions ie Pakistani Christian, Hindu and Sikh support etc. It has been a slow process of infiltration, not forgetting, great effort has been made in trying to brainwash and turn others against Israel, those gullible enough not to do their own research or think for themselves, were being deliberately force-fed the instigators vile and moronic distaste for anything to do with Israel. At one stage the EDL forums were, to an extent, regulated, but as time drew on it lapsed and it became free flow abuse of Israel/Jews, Roberta, supporters of Israel and Jews. It got to the stage where people felt criminal to announce their support for Israel - if you were a supporter of Israel and disagreed with anti-semitic viewpoints, people were accused of being a plant, an infiltrator and a lobbyist, and publicly denigrated! At one point any support shown towards the BNP was subtly halted, but with time this too became accepted. It got to the stage where topics on Israel where moved to a sub-sub-forum part of the board by a core element, by the same instigators! Sometimes threads and posts would disappear. People who wanted to discuss the topic of Israel were attacked and bullied, and between the nasty core of people they would get the person banned. We lost some interesting members. So, it doesn't surprise me to see people swarm over here with only half of the story - it wouldn't look good telling the truth would it? It doesn't take a lot of working out which side of the fence they've been sitting on and who they are protecting. Well, keep up with the lies and half truths, but remember, I won't sit here and let the lies stay uncountered. There is a lot more I could say, but for the time being I am done here.My support for the EDL has been unwavering, but I cannot and will not sanction anti-Semitic infiltration.
It seems to me that this Open Letter that was written to me has a far different agenda from its stated purpose. Ned May, who is “Baron Bodissey” of Gates of Vienna, is the Machiavellian plotter behind this attack on me – and he himself described himself as such in the EDL forums. He has posted scurrilous attacks on me and Robert Spencer well before this. Perhaps because he has accomplished little, he seeks to attain some sort of notoriety by destroying elements of the counterjihad movement that are more effective than he is.
At the same time, and probably not coincidentally, Gates of Vienna has become a home for many anti-Semitic rants that are deeply disturbing; not only are these sanctioned by the proprietors, but they’ve added to the chorus. As Ayn Rand said, “In any compromise between food and poison, it is only death that can win. In any compromise between good and evil, it is only evil that can profit.”
Now the “Baron” is urging other bloggers to join him in this campaign of destruction, and in the absence of significant traction, he has even gone so far as to include peoples’ names who never agreed to be on the list. Holger Danske and Henrik Raeder Clausen of Europe News wrote me to assure me that their names were ill-used: they had never agreed to sign on. I am told that Hans Erling Jensen, whose name also appears on it, is angry about this Open Letter also.
One who did sign on voluntarily, however, was KGS of Tundra Tabloids. I was genuinely surprised when I saw that he had added his name to the list. To me, this is particularly galling. Without going into details, I took a lot of heat covering for KGS and maintaining confidentiality back in 2009 when “Baron Bodissey” began falsely accusing of violating that confidentiality. But I kept silent so as not to expose KGS. And this is how I am repaid.
Then there was a revealing incident, in 2010, when the “Baron” and many of the signers of this Open Letter falsely accused Spencer and me of being responsible for YouTube’s deletion of a video. They had taken video from our inaugural AFDI conference at CPAC in 2010 of Allen West’s speech and subtitled it in various European languages. They had taken the video without the knowledge or consent of the person who filmed it, Pamela Hall – who thereupon complained to them.
They did not answer, so she complained to YouTube, as she had every right to do. YouTube removed the video after it had gotten an enormous number of hits. Ned and the others blamed us for this removal, and accused us of selfishness and lack of commitment to the cause – and continued these false accusations even after we had told them that we had known nothing about any complaints about the video.
Why? Why would they knowingly propagate falsehoods? What’s their real agenda?
I have been loathe to air all this out publicly, unlike this group, which seems to thrive on these conflicts -- although I did address their scandalous lies about the West video at the time. Other EDL members have sent me screenshots of Vlad and Ned in their forums, making the most egregious statements about me. They have been doing this for some time now. So what’s their real motive in this? My work speaks for itself -- and now clearly, so does theirs.
At their sites, they’re even deleting comments that defend my position. My partner Anders Gravers of Stop the Islamisation of Denmark tried to add this comment at Liberties Alliance, but it was blocked: “Henrik Ræder from Europe News says he has not been asked if he wanted to be on the list. Maybe he doesn't want to be on the list because Tommy Robinson admits that there is a problem with antisemitism but says it will be solved and that EDL is 100% behind Jews and Israel. These statements from Robinson should end the allegations that Pamela is not loyal to the cause and EDL. There will always be attempts on infiltration of groups like ours from the red nazis and the brown nazis. The only thing we can do is to clean out when we find them.” And John Jay tried to add a comment at Gates of Vienna, but was also blocked – read about it here.
I want to urge bloggers who may not be aware of the details, and are being strong-armed into signing this statement, that they first get all the facts. There may be other people on that list whose names are unauthorized. Why would they falsely put people’s names there? What are they trying to do?
Everyone on that list should be deeply concerned about the hijacking of the EDL. By ignoring it, these bloggers are sanctioning this vile racism. They completely disrespected Tommy Robinson by disregarding and ignoring his statement, which confirmed the concerns I had expressed in my own statement – the very concerns this group claims are without supporting evidence. Is there more to that? Is this cabal working to undermine his leadership?
In contrast, I spoke to Tommy Robinson at length; he issued his statement to SIOA. Considering his statement, I am not withdrawing my support for the EDL, but I continue to be deeply concerned and will be watching how events unfold. Instead of working to purge the EDL of these vile elements, the signers of this Open Letter are trying to destroy those of us who seek to maintain the proper focus of our mission and the EDL’s mission, which is fighting for freedom. I support the EDL’s original mission, but we cannot sanction evil and cover it up. We should expose it to the sunlight, so as to ensure that the group stays true to its original mission, and so that that mission is not compromised. These Machiavellian bloggers ought to know that.
There is a struggle for the soul of the EDL. Which side do you come down on?
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I stand with Geller! And Spencer. ALWAYS.