Islamophobia comes to Portland

Pamela Geller's soon-to-appear-on-Trimet message

Nothing gets me more fired up than raging ignorance dressed up as patriotism.  Unfortunately, there's a lot of that these days.

Check this story from Oregon Live:

Anti-Islamic ad being posted on TriMet vehicles because transit agency is locked in by court ruling

As stated in the story, the provocative ad is from the so-called American Freedom Defense Initiative, which is an anti-Islamic group.  It's leader, Pamela Geller, does the redneck lecture circuit, preaching hate to the yahoos.

So what kind of a woman is Pamela Geller? Let her speak for herself:

• "Islam is the most antisemitic, genocidal ideology in the world."
  
  
• "Obama is a third worlder and a coward. He will do nothing but beat up on our friends to appease his Islamic overlords. All this is going down while Obama plays footsie at his nuclear nonsense campfire -- sucking up to Iran's enablers while beating up our allies."
  
• "It is well known that Obama allegedly was involved with a crack whore in his youth. Very seedy stuff. Why aren't [the media] pursuing that story? Find the ho, give her a show! Obama allegedly trafficked in some very deviant practices. Where's the investigation? . . . Back in the early 80's, there were only two reasons to travel to Pakistan. Jihad or drugs. I think he went for the drugs and came back with jihad."
   
• "Jews refuse to get on Obama's Trains". . . "Obama is pressuring Jews to "evacuate" from parts of Israel? And what Warsaw ghetto does the muhammadan [sic] president have in mind? I think I am gonna hurl. The Jews will not go. The Jews will not submit to this century's nazis [sic] and Mansourian poser."
   
• (On the passage of health care): "The moochers and the looters^*, the crooks and degenerates voted at 1 am this morning to rip the constitution to shreds, to rape the American people and to nationalize medicine."
   
• Repeatedly accuses Obama of being a Muslim: Geller's blog contains 267 posts tagged "Muslim in the White House?"
   
• Geller claims that "devout Muslims should be prohibited from military service" because she believes that Adolf Hitler and Nazism were inspired by Islam.
   
• In the wake of the terrorist attacks in Norway committed by Anders Breivik, she claimed that the young people killed were bound to become "leaders of the party responsible for flooding Norway with Muslims who refuse to assimilate, who commit major violence against Norwegian natives including violent gang rapes, with impunity, and who live on the dole." 

^*Note the Ayn Rand terminology.  Geller is a Rand disciple.
 

Pamela Geller

Geller claims that her organization is pro-Israel, but American Jewish groups see it differently.  Here's what the Jewish Community Relations Council and the American Jewish Committee had to say about the ads:

"We are steadfast in our support of Israel and our concern about the growing threat of Islamic radicalism, and steadfast in our opposition to anti-Muslim stereotypes."

Not that this statement gives Geller any pause, of course.   I don't know what kind of money there is to be made in peddling anti-Muslim hate speech, but at the very least, she gets lots of public attention.

If she was really pro-Israel, one might be inclined to believe that she'd have something to say about that Nazi group that tried to establish itself in John Day a while back.  But, no.  Nary a word about that.  I guess Nazis just don't stir redneck passions like Muslims.

There's nothing to be done about it.  Free speech is protected by the Constitution.

But I'll tell you this, as the spouse of a practicing Muslim:  Geller's gum-flapping puts me on dangerous ground.  Because the first time someone insults my wife in my presence, there will be consequences.  I can guarantee that.