Mike L.
Pamela Geller: The Bête Noire of Progressive-Left Jewry
{Cross-posted at Israpundit.}
"If Pamela Geller is a racist I have yet to see the evidence. What I see is a much maligned woman standing up to the enemies of the Jewish people and to the enemies of the infidel west. What I also see are a whole bunch of moral cowards who defame this woman even as they turn a blind eye to the rise of political Islam throughout the Muslim Middle East."
The Day of the Dhimmi is Done - Michael Lumish, PhD, proprietor. (mike.lumish@gmail.com)
Personally, I feel no need to defend or disparage her. As with all polemicists, she strikes me as someone who enjoys inviting controversy.
ReplyDeleteWhat I do think I clearly see with the 'Islamophobe' (Chrome spell-check tells me this isn't a word, which I tend to agree with) label, however, is yet more psychological projection from Israel haters and the like. In the same manner they claim we call all 'mere criticism' of Israel antisemitism, these smear artists do the very same thing to anyone who even dares whisper the slightest dissent toward Political Islam.
Eventually, I'm sure it'll get to the point where to even accurately describe the 9/11 attacks as Islamic terrorism will be considered 'Islamophobic' to some.
Certain groups of 'progressives,' even those who ultimately oppose Islamism themselves, merrily go along with (and often engage in) this smear campaign, mostly I would think out of some form of groupthink. And also out of a crippling fear of being labeled 'Islamophobic,' themselves. They have to solidify their credentials in the eyes of their peers, you see.
If they think they'll remain immune from such attacks forever, however, they have another think coming.
Sam Harris, who is a very recent victim (along with Richard Dawkins and the late Christopher Hitchens) of such defamation, sums it up quite nicely here, I think -
"A general point about the mechanics of defamation: It is impossible to effectively defend oneself against unethical critics. If nothing else, the law of entropy is on their side, because it will always be easier to make a mess than to clean it up. It is, for instance, easier to call a person a “racist,” a “bigot,” a “misogynist,” etc. than it is for one’s target to prove that he isn’t any of these things. In fact, the very act of defending himself against such accusations quickly becomes debasing. Whether or not the original charges can be made to stick, the victim immediately seems thin-skinned and overly concerned about his reputation. And, rebutted or not, the original charges will be repeated in blogs and comment threads, and many readers will assume that where there’s smoke, there must be fire."
You and I both surely know of what he speaks, along with probably everyone else here. I personally no longer care what anyone says about me along these lines. Which is certainly not to say that I won't defend myself, but rather than always playing defense while back on my heels, my preferred method these days is to go on the attack instead.
Islam isn't a race or an ethnicity, after all, and the premise that one can be 'racist' for criticizing a value system or a religion is ludicrous on its face. Now some very well may be bigoted against Muslims as a whole, but again, that charge needs to be fleshed out and requires rather much more evidence than is typically brought to the table by those who freely launch such charges.
And this strikes to the very heart of everything, as I see it -
ReplyDelete"The whole purpose of that essay (written in 2006) was to express my concern that the political correctness of the Left has made it taboo to even notice the menace of political Islam, leaving only right-wing fanatics [such as Greek neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn] to do the job. Such fanatics are, as I thought I made clear, the wrong people to do this, being nearly as bad as jihadists themselves. I was not praising fascists: I was arguing that liberal confusion and cowardice was empowering them."
One shudders to think the quality and tone of speakers at American mosques who aren't given any attention by the media or the progressives standing on a mountain of leftist humanitarian street cred, defending them. Of course when we did suggest that Ground Zero was the wrong place to site a 'mosque' that was a front for terrorist fund raising we were called the bad people. But we won so I can live with that.
ReplyDeleteI like Geller because I find her to be scrappy and I find her to be right.
ReplyDeleteThat is, there are aspects within Islam which tend toward fascism and which are about as violently reactionary as violently reactionary gets.
These tendencies are supported by many millions of people, as well as by increasing numbers of state governments throughout the Middle East.
And we're among the foremost targets.
In fact, radical Jihadis want us dead twice. First for being Jewish and second for being American.
And we're supposed to remain quiet about this little fact so as not to offend people?
What kind of gutlessness does it take to fear speaking up in one's own self-defense?
I'd much rather have Geller in my fox-hole than your average American Jewish "leader."
At least she knows how to stand up and fight back.
Thank you Michael.
ReplyDeleteWell siad
I hope you are all behind the world wide initiative of 'Walk with Israel' on Yom Ha'atzmaut
I've done my bit. It great a few hundred of us with Zionist Council t-shirts, carrying Israeli flags walking around Centennial Park, about the same size as Central Park. Every one was singing and chanting especially all the kids form the youth groups.
It was great being waved on by Police and security people. Annoying the people who were walking and cycling. We didn't even managed to annoy any horses !!
We finished outside the park, where we annoyed cars when the traffic was stopped for us to cross the road to a great fete inside the grounds of Moriah College.
Heya Shirl,
DeleteAre you kidding me?
Annoying people is one of my specialties!
:O)
Time to 'storm' the mosque with counter protests. Time to protest and scream loud and clear about EVERY SINGLE speaker invited there and even louder about every single speaker invited to Great Neck Beth-El of which Jerome Davidson is Emeritus and Roslyn Temple Sinai of which Michael White is senior Rabbi. Wait for them to invite some hate imam because you know they will.
ReplyDelete