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Anti-Muslim Bigotry

Why We Need to Debate Anti-Muslim Bigots Like Pamela Geller

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Crossposted from AltMuslim

By Davi Barker

The billboard wars continue on, the latest clash recently being in San Francisco. Every so often Anti-Muslim demagogue, Pam Geller blows a wad of cash on an ad (hominem) campaign against Islam, or at least critical of the boogeyman Muslims she imagines under her bed.

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I call this “the billboard wars” because it started with billboards during the Ground Zero Mosque fiasco (which wasn’t at ground zero and wasn’t a mosque), but since then Geller has learned that most billboards are owned by private companies who are free to refuse her business. So, now she targets ad space on public transportation, with her ideologically lock-step lawyer, David Yerulshalmi, loaded and ready if any municipality tries to refuse.

In economic terms, this is what we call “the tragedy of the commons.” There is no way to legally prevent people from misusing public property in ways we would not allow on private property. It’s always struck me as incredibly hypocritical for a self-proclaimed Randian Objectivist to exploit public policy she is supposedly against, and to sue municipalities to secure those ill-gotten privileges, to achieve objectives she could never conceivably accomplish in the free market world libertarians and Objectivists advocate.

Recently Geller rolled out an ad (hominem) campaign on San Francisco Muni buses designed to mimic the #MyJihad campaign. The #MyJihad campaign has been falsely reported as a CAIR project. CAIR was a big supporter, but MyJihad.org is its own organization. Their homepage describes their mission as “Taking back Islam from Muslim and anti-Muslim extremists alike.” Their ads included sunnah smiling Muslim faces proclaiming, “My Jihad is Making New Friends. What’s yours?” or “My Jihad is Eating More Broccoli. What’s yours?” And so on.

The effort of the campaign was to reclaim the word “jihad” and restore its rightful meaning, which is simply to struggle in the way of God — to strive for justice, compassion, self-improvement and when it’s called for, self-defense. Geller’s campaign copies the colors and fonts of the original but features images and quotes of Osama bin Laden and other prominent extremist figures we all reject and condemn.

About a month ago, Geller appeared on KQED Radio’s Forum with Michael Krasny opposite David Chiu, president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, and Jess Ghannam, a professor from UCSF, and director of the Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee of San Francisco.

As well intentioned as David and Jess are, and as much as it pains me to admit it, Pam Geller won that debate. By that, I mean that a listener who had never heard of Geller and was unfamiliar with this dispute could easily have been taken in by her because she made the stronger argument in this round.

It’s obvious that she has refined her strategy and honed her skills. In other words, the wolf has bleached her sheep’s clothing. Listeners who don’t know her history don’t know about the boiling cauldron of noxious waste simmering right beneath the surface. David Chiu and Jess Ghannam were outclassed by a mercenary demagogue. So, without disparaging their efforts in the least, I’d like to discuss why I think they lost.

First, CAIR refused to appear on the same program as Geller. Their statement was read on the show saying “We would not expect members of the NAACP to debate members of the KKK,” and “Debate presupposes rational premises.” I see their point, and I understand their strategy, but they are wrong on both counts. They are right that Geller is undeserving of that platform, but that’s not CAIR’s call. It’s KQED’s call to make. If KQED invited the KKK on their show, it would negligent of the NAACP to refuse to confront them. Geller’s message may be similar to the KKK’s, but her status in polite society is not. That’s why it’s important for her opposition to confront her and expose her. There was a time when the KKK was debated in this way, and they lost those debates, which is why they will never be invited on KQED.

Also, debate does not presuppose rational premises. It presupposes irrational premises. The purpose of debate is to expose irrationality masquerading as rational. Refusing to debate her allows her to pontificate unopposed, and in this case even hurt CAIR’s allies. When Jess asked Geller, “Why don’t you have the courage to talk to us directly?” Geller easily shot back “CAIR is the one who wouldn’t come on the show with me. You’re accusing me of what CAIR did.”

And, she’s right. The fact is CAIR was the right opponent for this debate, if for no other reason than because it’s being misreported that #MyJihad was CAIR’s campaign. If they would have began the conversation by setting the record straight it would have immediately put her off her game.

Second, we need to stop calling what Geller does racist, because she just shoots back, “Islam is not a race.” She’s right. We’re giving her easy points because Geller is not racist. She’s perfectly happy to praise an Arab who hates Muslims, and she’s perfectly willing to attack a caucasian who accepts Islam. Just call it bigotry, because that’s what it is – ”Obtuse or narrow-minded intolerance, especially of other races or religions.” To be fair, they also called her project bigotry, but that accusation was lost because they confused the issue. Keep it simple.

Third, stop asking things like, “Is Ms. Geller saying that all Muslims are evil? … Is she saying that Muslims can’t be good Americans?” Especially don’t ask it immediately after she specifically says that is not what she’s saying, as Jess did. What’s she going to say, “Yes?” The role of someone debating Geller is to get her to expose her true intentions in her own words, because she will never answer that question outright. She’ll say mealy-mouthed things like, “Many Muslims support me, but they’re not free to speak because Islamic supremacist groups like CAIR will shut them up.”

I’d like to know who these Muslims are, because as I understand it even Zuhdi Jasser rejects Geller, and he’s the token Muslim among the anti-Muslim demagogues. If CAIR is capable of silencing this groundswell of Muslims who agree with Geller, why aren’t they able to silence her?

A proper debate begins with a disputed claim, and she stated her claim clearly. She says the purpose of her ad campaign is to “increase awareness about the motive and the ideology behind Jihad” and to “show the reality of Jihad, and the root causes of terrorism in the words of Jihadists themselves.” If you want to effectively oppose her, you have to stop her right there before she makes any other argument, because the disputed claim in this debate is the very meaning of the word “Jihad.” So, you can’t let her use the term as if the definition is not in dispute. You can’t concede that ground, because it’s the whole battle.

Geller’s ad (hominem) campaign did not appear in a vacuum. It appeared in response the #MyJihad ad campaign, which means she is explicitly saying, whether she admits or not, that the mainstream Muslims who contributed to the campaign have the wrong definition, and the violent extremists we all reject and condemn have the right definition. That is the dispute.

So, when Geller says “No one disputes the accuracy of the quotes” she’s right. We all agree that Osama bin Laden said that. But when she says, “Muslims aren’t condemning these quotes” she’s wrong, in fact the very purpose of the #MyJihad campaign that she’s attacking was to reject that definition of jihad.

We stand on one side of this dispute, and Geller stands on the other. CAIR, #MyJihad, Jess Ghannam and the normative opinions of Muslims throughout history agree that “jihad” is a word that means “to strive for justice, compassion, self-improvement and when it’s called for, self-defense.” Geller, Osama bin Laden and the other extremists that she quotes agree that “jihad” is a word that means “holy war.” That is the dispute. That is the debate. That is precisely why from the beginning #MyJihad described their mission as taking back the word from Muslim AND anti-Muslim extremists alike.

Let’s not forget that.

A version of this article appeared in The Examiner.

#MyJihad responds to this OpEd

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10 Comments

10 Comments

  1. GC66

    April 13, 2013 at 8:15 AM

    Pamela Geller is Jewish, do not forget this and more than likely is backed by zionist strategists, who are the enemies of Islam.

    • Tanveer Khan

      April 13, 2013 at 12:30 PM

      Yeah, she is jewish. So what? There a jewish people against anti muslim bigots too.

      http://www.jewsagainstislamophobia.org/

      • GC66

        April 13, 2013 at 2:33 PM

        Do you know the difference between a zionist Jew and just a Jew?

        Not all Jews are cool with zionism. The anti-muslim Jews are zionists. Palestine ring a bell??

        • Tanveer Khan

          April 13, 2013 at 3:32 PM

          You said “Pamella Geller is jewish, do not forget this and more than likely backed by zionists stratregists”. You didnt say “Pamella geller is a jewish zionist, do not forget this”. You seemed to emphasise only the part that she is a jew.

          • GC66

            April 13, 2013 at 6:15 PM

            If she is a zionist Jew she is any enemy of Muslims and Islam.

            You seem to be the one keen on the Jewish aspect.

            Let me make it easier for you…… Robert Spencer, who works hand in ahnd with Pamela is catholic and also a zionist and he as well is an enemy of Islam and Muslims.
            You don’t have to be a Jew to be a zionist but many zionists are Jews with the chosen people intellect which as Muslims know is a bunch of garbage.

        • Tanveer Khan

          April 13, 2013 at 6:34 PM

          Nevermind, forget what i said. I cant seem to put my thoughts into my comment correctly so a different message comes across.

  2. Jibreel

    April 17, 2013 at 10:13 PM

    salam aleikum
    icraa.org or iera can debate them if people can arrange it. We should not run away from the debate.

  3. Jibreel

    April 17, 2013 at 10:17 PM

    I told many communities that there is a need for a debate. We have been debating Spencer and others for a long time. Check http://www.letmeturnthetables.com and icraa.org
    The problem is that they know where to hit and how to hit. We are distorting our Islam and they hold us to our books. Whoever is playing with the meaning of jihad should be careful as they will fall in their own trap. We need to have wisdom and be straight forward.
    We are more than happy to debate them if there is a proper platform as we have history of treachery and deceit in debates by these people.

    • GC66

      April 18, 2013 at 6:07 AM

      Spencer and Gellar and the like attack Islam to serve a higher agenda than just to falsely warn people of Islam.
      They serve the political war machine who bow down to their money gods and to power and corruption over mankind.
      They wish to use the Quran against Muslims fine. All that has to be done is to use the Gospel and Torah and God’s laws against them in defense.

      You have to know who your enemy is well.

  4. Zebram

    April 20, 2013 at 11:05 AM

    There’s also a difference between Objectivists and Libertarians. Objectivists are generally thought to be a subset of libertarians, but there are plenty of libertarians apart from them.

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