From Pamela Geller over at Atlas Shrugs:
Hamas-CAIR has seized a statement by Swedish Muhammad cartoonist Lars Vilks in Sweden’s The Local and run with it. Vilks was quoted by the Swedish enemedia as if he were equating speaking at our September 11 SION International Freedom Defense Congress with speaking to the Ku Klux Klan. This was, of course, not at all what Vilks said or meant, and in a statement he is now circulating he sets the record straight and reiterates his strong support for SION’s work:
An utterance I made in an interview in a Swedish newspaper on the 30th of August has been misunderstood. What I said has been taken out of context and made into a statement which is a total misunderstanding of what was said: “˜Vilks cites KKK to defend talk to U.S. anti-muslim group”.
In my artistic work I document invitations I get from all kinds of organisations and groups of interest. This includes e.g. departments at Universities, political parties, management groups, school classes, art societies, organisations for freedom of speech, religious societies, debate programs in television and other media etc. The content in my lectures is about free speech and especially the right for artists to use artistic expressions without being censored. The question asked in the interview was if I could accept an invitation from extreme political groups. This has never happened but I said that if it should happen I might accept it as a part of my investigation project. SION has of course nothing to do with that. SION is a defender of the basic values in Western Culture, including freedom of expression and equality of rights for all people, with no special rights for any group. SION is firmly against all forms of racism and religious supremacism. I also and strongly support SION’s important critique of political Islam.
Register for our World Freedom Congress, September 11, 2012, UN Plaza Millennium Hotel, 3:00 pm – 7:00 pm. Email me at PamelaGeller@gmail.com. We have just added more seats, but there is little space left. The principal focus of the Congress will be pertaining to Islamic supremacist attempts to restrict the freedom of speech in the free world, and the smear campaigns against freedom fighters in newspapers and media institutions in the West.
The objective of this freedom congress is to develop media-related mechanisms to address the smear campaigns. It will also address the media’s double standard regarding Islam and other religions. The Congress will discuss at length the reasons behind and the results of the Western media’s offensive campaigns against freedom of speech and the truth about Islam, jihad, Islamic supremacism and Muslims.
The International Freedom Defense Congress will represent a quantum leap in media action, as it discusses, beyond rhetoric, the practical steps to address the phenomenon of the Islamic war against free speech.
Speakers include:Ambassador John BoltonSwedish cartoonist Lars VilksNY State Senator David StorobinMordechai Kedar (Israel)Cliff Kincaid (Accuracy In Media)Ashraf Rameleh (Voice of the Copts)Paul Weston (British Freedom Party, England)Kevin Carroll (EDL, England)
Anders Gravers (Stop Islamisation of Europe)
George Igler (Discourse Institute.org)
Debbie Robinson (Q Society, Australia)
Nelly Braginsky (911 Family Mother)
David Yerushalmi (American Law for American Courts)
Lars Hedegaard (Denmark)