THE MUHAMMAD CARTOONS

THE MUHAMMAD CARTOONSProfile: Pamela GellerAMERICAN BLOGGER, author and political activist,Pamela Geller is a principal leader of the internationalCounter-Jihad movement.Geller co-founded the American Freedom Defence Initiative(AFDI) and Stop Islamization of Nations (SION) and isExecutive Director of Stop Islamization of America (SIOA).She was a leading campaigner against the proposedconstruction of an Islamic community centre in LowerManhattan, New York, labelling it the ‘Ground Zero megamosque’. Her blog, Atlas Shrugs, is one of the ‘go to’ sitesfor counter-jihadists the world over.More recently, she hit the headlines when she coorganiseda Muhammad cartoon competition in Texaswhich was attacked by two known jihadists.A former associate publisher of The New York Observer,Geller promotes a conspiratorial anti-Muslim agendathat emphasises the existence of a concerted Islamicconspiracy to destroy American values.She published Stop the Islamization of America in2011, which she has described as a “practical primerfor patriots”.Among the wild views she holds, Geller believes thatBarack Obama is actually a Muslim. She joined a chorusof other right-wing cranks by insisting that he shouldnot be President because (in their view) he was secretlyborn abroad.Because her views are controversial and extreme herorganisation has been labelled a ‘hate group’ by theAnti-Defamation League (ADL) and the Southern PovertyLaw Center (SPLC).As well as defending former Serbian president SlobodanMilosevic, she has said that the massacre of 8,000Bosnian Muslims was the “Srebrenica Genocide Myth”and claimed that Muslims are driven by a “desperateHolocaust envy.”In 2010 she called the far-right English Defence League(EDL) “courageous English patriots” and said that peopleshould “support the English Defence League in its effortsto stand for England and the West against the belligerentinvaders and Islamic imperialists.”Much of her work has been done in conjunction withRobert Spencer, the other key anti-Muslim activist in theUS. Together they run SIOA and AFDI.In 2010 Stop Islamization of America sponsoredinflammatory bus adverts in encouraging Muslims toleave Islam. Signs such as “Islam = 1,400 years ofAggression, Murder!’ are regularly seen at protest eventsorganised by Geller.Despite this extremism her views have been embracedby leading political figures including Newt Gingrich,the former Republican Speaker of the US House ofRepresentatives.She is a columnist for American Thinker, Human Eventsand WorldNetDaily. She was cited 12 times (together withher Atlas Shrugs blog) in Anders Breivik’s manifesto.Her provocative and insulting behaviour has given herhuge stature in Europe and she has a loyal followingamong counter-jihadist activists.Anders Gravers, leader of Stop Islamization of Europe, isalso chairman of Stop Islamization of Nations, and Dutchpolitician Geert Wilders has been regular at Geller’s eventsin the US.She is personally linked to many UK counter-jihadists,such as Kinana and Alan Ayling, and as aforementioned,has been a big supporter of former EDL leader StephenLennon (aka Tommy Robinson).When Robinson was imprisoned for travelling to thelaunch of the SION in New York for travelling under a falsepassport, Geller gave $10,000 to help his family.In 2013, Geller and Spencer were banned from enteringthe UK to address an EDL demonstration shortly after LeeRigby was murdered. After a campaign by HOPE not hate,the Home Secretary declared both were extremists whowere likely to stir up trouble.Geller has been actively promoting the Muhammadcartoon initiatives in Europe through her blog and emails.Alan Ayling has also told other British counter-jihadiststhat Geller will fund a cartoon campaign.caption14 | THE MUHAMMAD CARTOONS | HOPE not hate