Je Suis Pamela Geller
By Robert
Spencer
FrontPageMag.com
I was standing next to Pamela Geller just after
our American Freedom Defense Initiative/Jihad Watch
Muhammad Art Exhibit and Cartoon Contest ended last
Sunday in Garland, Texas when one of our security
team ran in and told us that there had been a
shooting outside. As the audience was led to another
area inside the building and the outside was swept
for bombs and additional jihadis, Geller and I were
hurried to a safe room. It was the last time since
then that Pamela Geller has been safe.
The Islamic State quickly issued a communiqué
that included this:
The attack by the Islamic State in America is
only the beginning of our efforts to establish a
wiliyah [actually wilayah, administrative district]
in the heart of our enemy. Our aim was the khanzeer
[pig] Pamela Geller and to show her that we don’t
care what land she hides in or what sky shields her;
we will send all our Lions to achieve her slaughter.
This will heal the hearts of our brothers and
disperse the ones behind her. To those who protect
her: this will be your only warning of housing this
woman and her circus show. Everyone who houses her
events, gives her a platform to spill her filth are
legitimate targets. We have been watching closely
who was present at this event and the shooter of our
brothers. We knew that the target was protected. Our
intention was to show how easy we give our lives for
the Sake of Allah.
On top of that, instead of rallying to her
defense and to that of the freedom of speech, the
mainstream media, both on the Left and on the Right,
has spent the week excoriating Pamela Geller for
daring to “provoke” the poor jihadis, as if the two
Muslim gunmen who showed up at our event would have
become fiercely patriotic stockbrokers if only we
hadn’t shown those cartoons.
It is therefore clear that
if, God forbid, anything does happen to Pamela
Geller, the talking heads will look soulfully into
the cameras and say, Of course we are shocked…Of
course we condemn….but…wellllll…she had it
coming…she should have submitted to Sharia blasphemy
restrictions like the rest of us…
The reality is that if the gunmen were “provoked”
by the Muhammad cartoons, they would have been
“provoked” by something else. What had the Jews in
the Hyper Cacher supermarket in January done to
“provoke” the Muslims? They dared to be Jews. What
had the people in the Lindt Chocolat Cafe in
Australia done to “provoke” the Muslims? Dared to be
non-Muslims.
People who say our cartoon contest deliberately
tried to provoke a violent reaction are under the
apparent delusion that if we abide by Muhammad
Atta’s advice to the passengers on his doomed plane
on September 11, 2001, all will be well. Atta told
the passengers, “Stay quiet and you’ll be OK.”
They weren’t.
The jihadis are already
“provoked.” As I show in my forthcoming book
The Complete Infidel’s Guide to ISIS,
they were already planning and preparing for massive
jihad attacks in the United States long before our
cartoon show was ever considered. No amount of
submission on our part is going to change that. In
fact, the more we submit to violent intimidation,
the more violent intimidation we are going to get.
Why should the jihadis abandon a winning formula?
The world rallied to proclaim “Je suis Charlie”
after the massacre of Muhammad cartoonists in Paris
in January. But when those jihadis targeted our
Muhammad cartoon event last Sunday, few were saying
“Je suis Pamela Geller.” What’s the difference? The
Charlie Hebdo cartoonists were reliably Leftist,
while Geller is identified with the Right. And now
it is clear: the Leftist intelligentsia would rather
see the freedom of speech restricted, and Sharia
censorship imposed, rather than stand with someone
whose opinions they find unacceptable.
That really isn’t any surprise. The Left in
America is increasingly authoritarian, intolerant,
and opposed to the freedom of speech. Leftist
thinkers speak only to each other, dismissing
challenges from the Right with ad hominem attacks or
ignoring them altogether. It would be easy for those
who live in that echo chamber to think of the
Garland jihadi gunmen, Ibrahim Simpson and Nadir
Soofi, as ideological kin: assassins rather than
character assassins, but with the same goal in mind.
Those who understand, however,
that the freedom of speech, and free society in
general, cannot possibly survive the imposition of
censorship to avoid offending a group that reacts
with murderous violence to being offended, are
indeed saying Je Suis Pamela Geller today. If
the free world ever remembers that obeying someone
who will kill you if you disobey only reinforces
your slavery, it will owe her a debt of gratitude of
awesome proportions.
About
Robert Spencer
Robert Spencer is the
director of
Jihad Watch and author of the New York Times
bestsellers
The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the
Crusades) and
The Truth About Muhammad. His latest book is
Arab Winter Comes to America: The Truth About the
War We’re In. Follow him on Twitter
here.
Like him on Facebook
here.