The legal intimidation libel case against my colleague Pamela Geller continues. Ohio lawyer Omar Tarazi has filed a $10-million defamation lawsuit against Geller for elements of her reporting on the case of Rifqa Bary, the teenage girl who kicked off a year-long custody battle when she fled from her home in fear for her life after her Muslim father discovered her conversion to Christianity. (The battle ended when Rifqa turned eighteen and was free to live on her own as a Christian.) You can read more details here.
An update: Geller’s attorneys have filed a response to Tarazi’s own response to the pro-free speech side’s motion to dismiss the case. In it, Geller’s legal team says that “Plaintiff’s motion is a feckless attempt to avoid responding to Defendant Geller’s properly supported motion to dismiss the Amended Complaint,” so that “he can prolong this vexatious litigation and engage in a costly ‘fishing expedition.'” In fact, “conspicuously absent from Plaintiff’s motion is any discussion regarding the merits of Defendant Geller’s motion to dismiss (or any challenge to the authenticity or accuracy of the information contained in the attached exhibits for that matter). And the reason is obvious: Plaintiff’s Amended Complaint fails as a matter of law, and he knows it. No amount of discovery can change that conclusion.”
But even with all the facts on one’s side, you never know how things are going to go in a courtroom. In any case, this suit is a rather obvious and clumsy attempt to intimidate into silence one of the most effective voices for freedom on the scene today; it is just another example of how Islamic supremacists use our own laws as weapons against us. I’ll keep you updated.
Meanwhile, in Austria the kangaroo trial of freedom fighter Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff for telling the truth about Islam has begun. Latest updates here. I offered to testify on Elisabeth’s behalf in that case, and the offer still stands; I’ll be keeping you updated on that case as well.