Savaged For Daring To Name Savagery: Pamela Geller Attacked by Critics of Free Speech

Savaged For Daring To Name Savagery: Pamela Geller Attacked by Critics of Free Speech

Here at last is a balanced article on my colleague Pamela Geller's fight for the freedom of speech and the truth about jihad. "Savaged For Daring To Name Savagery: Pamela Geller Attacked by Critics of Free Speech," by Lori Lowenthal Marcus for the Jewish Press
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Bravo to Lori Lowenthal Marcus and the Jewish Press!

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The ads are already running on the sides of San Francisco buses, they began running today, September 24th, in New York City, and they were scheduled to begin appearing in the Washington, D.C. metro system. However, the DC system balked, citing the violent rioting by Muslims allegedly inflamed by a YouTube video which presents an unflattering view of Mohammad, so Geller initiated an emergency court action at the end of last week to enforce her First Amendment rights.
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Of course, some transit systems balked before this—but always on the main point of such ads "inciting hatred", which is often code these days for "serving as a grievance de jure for Muslims to act out violently". There is also the trope that any criticism of Muslims or Islam might inspire actions against Muslims, but this is chimerical.

After this, they can always fall back on the idea that such criticisms are "racist" or "Islamophobic". The first is entirely false—Islam is *not* a race or ethnicity; and latter creates a creed that is exempt from any criticism, no matter how mild—in other words, we impose Shari'ah blasphemy laws on ourselves.

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Because there is so much misinformation both about Geller and her ad, The Jewish Press asked her to explain what her ad means...
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Definitely refreshing. Most media is more than happy to pile on with yet more misinformation, and consider it "a job well done"...

I liked Pamela Geller's point about most Muslims being the victims of Islam. It is undeniably true.

While I consider this ad exceptionally derogatory and spreading hate and phobia by this messages. However, AFDI is not violating any law as per New York Judge.

Any free speech that may lead to public being hurt and is threat to communal harmony need to be investigated by the law makers by holding debate and law enacted.

Dhimmi South Yorkshire Police deny hiding Islamic pedophile networks

A police force has denied withholding information about the scale of sexual exploitation of girls by gangs of men in South Yorkshire.

The county's force was responding after The Times said confidential police reports referred to widespread abuse of girls by Asian men.

Rotherham MP Denis MacShane said police kept secret the abuse from politicians.

South Yorkshire Police said the suggestion it was reluctant to tackle child sexual abuse was wrong.

In November 2010, five Rotherham men were jailed for sexual offences against under-age girls.

Labour MP Mr MacShane said on Monday: "The Rotherham police exposed, arrested and broke up an evil gang of internal traffickers who were sent to prison.

"But it is clear that the internal trafficking of barely pubescent girls is much more widespread and I regret that the police did not tell Yorkshire MPs about their inquiries."

The investigation by The Times - with access to confidential documents from the police intelligence bureau, social services and other organisations - alleges widespread abuse.
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The newspaper said a confidential 2010 report by the Police Intelligence Bureau detailed "a significant problem with networks of Asian males exploiting young white females, particularly in Rotherham and Sheffield".

The paper claimed that in another confidential report in 2010 from Rotherham Safeguarding Children Board "there are sensitivities of ethnicity with potential to endanger the harmony of community relationships".

Mr MacShane said the sexual violation and commercial exploitation of young girls by older men was a "growing problem and needs far more public policy attention".

In a statement, the force said: "South Yorkshire Police is recognised as leading the way on what is now being recognised nationally as a problem and to suggest that the force and its partners are deliberately withholding information on the issue is a gross distortion and unfair on the teams of dedicated specialists working to tackle the problem."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-19701760

In my opinion the wording of the ad was not properly thought out. She is now spending her time defending the use of the word 'savage' and explaining that she does not consider all Muslims uncivilised and savage.

She has left herself open to the attack that not only Israel is civilised and not all Arabs are savages.

The focus of the ad should be supporting Israel against the savagery of Jihad, promoted by a reprehensible ideology.

In my opinion the wording of the ad was not properly thought out. She is now spending her time defending the use of the word 'savage' and explaining that she does not consider all Muslims uncivilised and savage.

She has left herself open to the attack that not only Israel is civilised and not all Arabs are savages.

The focus of the ad should be supporting Israel against the savagery of Jihad, promoted by a reprehensible ideology.

'' ...and, most importantly, why she continues to express her views so publicly, when she is repeatedly condemned by virtually the entire spectrum of mainstream media and even by other Jewish and pro-Israel groups''

Well, that's self-evident. Because she is a courageous, no-nonsense lady who refuses to be silenced by the mealy mouthed pc/mc paradigm, and has the guts to continue to speak the truth in the face of vilification. Brava, Ms. Geller ! And Bravo, Mr. Spencer !

I agree with Rich above that the wording of this ad could have benefited from some professional Madison Av packaging. It is not strategically astute. It's easy to make out a case against Islam and societies based upon the Islamic belief system because of their inherent deprivation of civil and human rights as such rights are ordinarily defined by western democratic values. Seems to me the ad could have been drafted to be much less controversial and much more convincing.

It bears repeating. In all societies which are based upon the Islamic belief system and sharia law, there is no freedom of speech or freedom of and from religion. Blasphemy and apostasy are serious, even capital, crimes. Misogyny and homophobia are endemic to all Islamic socieites together with female genital mutilation, child brides, honor killing and Koranic justification for wife beating. In Morocco, for example, the law allows a rapist to go scot free by offering to marry his victim.

Islamic governance is repressive. Premarital, homosexual and extramarital sex are serious, even capital, crimes. There is no separation of church and state because unelected clerics are given authority to trump the decisions of elected officials. Just a day or so ago Egyptain President Morsi, great secularist he, stated publicly that in his view neither a Christian nor a woman was fit to be president of Egypt, but that, ultimately, it was a matter for the religious authorities to decide.

I generally support the work of those such as PG and RS, who struggle to out the civil and human rights abuses of Islam and sharia law, but, like the wording of this ad, their struggle is often undermined by unwise strategy. This is especially true when thsese blogsters expand their criticism of the Islamic belief system to tangential criticisms of American domestic and foreign policy. In the process, they often shoot themselves in the foot by adopting some very controversial positions, positions which could argued to be "rightwing." This not only pollutes the strength of their argument on Islamic human rights violations, but provides plenty of divisive grist for the mills of critics, in and out of the MSM, to marginalize PG and RS as well as all other critics of Islam rights violations.
Moreover, even if the general political views of PG and RS can not fairly described as rightwing, their vitriol so monotously directed to "leftists" (defined as anyone who doesn't condemn Islam) only serves to alienate liberals and progressives (in and out of the media) who might otherewise lend a more sympathetic ear to PG and RS and all others who address the human rights deprivations inherent to Islamic societies.

AFDI may win the legal battle to have this ad published, but I wonder how much good it will do to its cause in the long run.

When I saw the clip of Pamela Geller talking on Fox News I felt very, proud of her!

There is NO mention of Islam or Moslems in the ad! Anyone who claims that Geller's ad is an attack on Moslems is himself associating all Moslems with jihad!

@ Jan
Well, I agree that the language used by AFDI certainly has created controversy. Is that going to turn out well for the guys wearing the white hats? I think not. When juxtaposed with the word "civilized" the word "savage" conjurs up all too facilely (and accurately) images of indigenous people of color being invaded and slaughtered by racist, supposedly higher, civilizations.

One doesn't have to look too far to find examples of what I am referring to, e.g., the self-proclaimed "civilized" white man's decimation of the Native American indians, Spain and Portugal's wholesale slaughter, almost as sport, of Aztecs, Incas and other native South American tribes, then eastward to Africa and the white man's institution of the slave trade, Dutch racist apartheid in So Africa, British mistreatment of the Australian aborigines and indigenous brown people of India, etc. The list goes on and on and nauseatingly on of supposedly civilized white cultures invading and unjustly treating native people of color.

Arabs are perceived as people of color, Israelis are perceived as European or white despite the fact both are racial cousins and share similar genetic material. It is too easy for readers of these ads to make the association of "civilized" white Israelis brutalizing native Palestinian "savages." Israel's attempts to defend itself against Arab/Muslim aggression can be viewed as one more example of the injustice dealt to an indigenous people by an invader. That kind of associative thinking is not helpful to sway public opinion in favor of Israel's cause.

Quite apart from the unsavory historical associations the ad conjurs up, some people in the neutral camp are apt to be turned off simply by the coarseness of the language. It's too close to calling someone a "sand nigger."

Despite your predeliction for plain talk the language of these ads is counter-productive for the anti-jihad movement and for Israel's positioning in its struggle with the Palestinians. The AFDI team needs to consult with some public relations pros in order to package their message effectively.