Frontpage Interview’s guest today is Pamela Geller, founder, editor and publisher of the popular and award-winning weblog AtlasShrugs.com. She has won acclaim for her interviews with internationally renowned figures, including John Bolton, Geert Wilders, Bat Ye’or, Natan Sharansky, and many others, and has broken numerous important stories — notably the questionable sources of some of the financing of the Obama campaign. Her op-eds have been published in The Washington Times, The American Thinker, Israel National News, Frontpage Magazine, World Net Daily, and New Media Journal, among other publications. She is the co-author (with Robert Spencer) of The Post-American Presidency: The Obama Administration’s War on America (forward by Ambassador John Bolton) — just released on July 27.
FP: Pamela Geller, welcome back to Frontpage interview.
Geller: Thanks, Jamie.
FP: Congratulations on the victory you just achieved in terms of the bus campaign your group Stop Islamization of America (SIOA) is seeking to conduct in New York City to expose the Ground Zero mega-mosque for what it really is. Tell us about your victory.
Geller: Jamie, last Friday, my organization the Freedom Defense Initiative (FDI), my colleague Robert Spencer and I filed a lawsuit against the city of New York for refusing my SIOA “Preservation of Ground Zero” bus campaign. Unbelievably, New York’s Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) refused the campaign because it contained “911 images” and associated the Ground Zero mega-mosque with 9/11 – even though mosque leaders have been associating the mosque with 9/11 every chance they can get.
The full text of our complaint is here.
But on Monday, the MTA has recognized the justice of our position in our lawsuit, and agreed to run our ad as originally submitted.
FP: What is the significance of this victory?
Geller: This is a great victory for freedom of speech, and we are grateful to our attorneys David Yerushalmi and Robert Muise for mounting such an effective defense against politically correct censorship.
Glazov: Give us some background and details. How did all this unfold?
Geller: Jamie, last month, I signed a contract with CBS Outdoor to run a “Preservation of Ground Zero” bus ad campaign. The campaign was paid for in full.
Here is the ad I submitted:
The ad was refused. When I asked on what grounds, CBS Outdoor told me that the city said that “images of 9/11 were not allowed.”
FP: How did you react to that?
Geller: I was floored. I said, “It is American history. How can it be banned? What about Pearl Harbor? Is that censored too? On what grounds are 9/11 images banned? It is unconscionable.”
The CBS Outdoor representative told me: “You can’t run the plane.”
I asked CBS/MTA to provide me with the guidelines for these seventh-century censorship restrictions. They never did. And so, with the help of my art director, the talented and singular Big Fur Hat, I removed the plane and submitted a new ad with the following note:
Will, Still waiting for the MTA guidelines. Please respond to my previous queries. Here is the new art …… please know that I strenuously object to you changing my artwork and my message in the process. It’s American history. I am floored. However, since you and/or the MTA are unwilling to change your position, I have no choice but to run the advertisement with your edits.
CBS refused this ad as well. They said I had to remove the smoke.
FP: The smoke?
Geller: Yes, the smoke. I know it sounds unbelievable, but it’s true. When I spoke to CBS’s representative concerning the second rejection of my Ground Zero bus ad, he said that the MTA “doesn’t want to associate the new building” – that is, the Islamic supremacist Ground Zero mega-mosque – “with Ground Zero.” He added that the showing of the burning buildings “hurts people.”
FP: How did you answer that?
Geller: I said: “Hurts people? I find bus ads proselytizing for Islam hurts apostates. Are you going to take those bus ads down? Are you saying images of the largest attack on American soil are censored? Are Pearl Harbor images censored? Gettysburg, too?”
Islamic State of North America by 2050?
Islamicism is like cancer; you either defeat it or it will defeat you… The real war is not against a bunch of terrorists, but rather of the values of democracy and freedom against the values of barbarism. “The battleground is that of ideas and ideologies, but the West hasn’t even woken up to the fact that this battleground exists.” – Melanie Phillips, author of Londonistan. “Islam is coming to America the same way Christianity came to Rome… whether they like it or not. We talk about the Islamic State of North America by 2050… The people of Hamas and Hizbullah are good people; they don’t deserve condemnation, they do good things…” – Imam Abdul Musa of Washington, D.C. More at : http://israelagainstterror.blogspot.com/2009/08/i…
I read that there is a "pool" in the Mosque. Will women be discriminated against and if so, will feminist groups protest?
No, because in the game of destroying all standards and tearing down the bastions of Western Civilization from within, Islam has the ability to do more damage than feminism does. Not to say that I do not believe in equal rights for women (how can I not, I am female), but feminism as used by the Left is not used to propagate equality of the sexes, but rather the idea that females are "victims" of males and thus the requirements of objective Western standards must be lessened or neutralized in order to accomodate them.
As a practical matter, could we get a campaign asking contractors and workers to refuse to be involved with this offensive project — whether that means supplying materials, labor or services? I think most New Yorkers would not want to build the platform on which they will dance on our graves, would they?
Thanks Pamela, you are very courageous and a real freedom fighter. If I lived in NY I would be on the streets protesting as often as I could. What an outrage. You liberals really are dummies. You dont realize that in your attempt to look unbiased you play right into the enemies hands. These people dont care about America, or freedom, or democracy, they want victory and conquest.
Sometimes I wonder whether I would be willing to give my life for another moment of national clarity such as Americans experienced on 9/12/01,
Not unless it has a hope of restoring Constitutional law. Until then, keep living and keep fighting.
I still think that ad should show the smoke from the burning, soon-to-collapse World Trade Center towers after the planes hit them.
Great idea: Buildings falling as construction of a building is going up. "From ashes rises a (fill in the blank). Or "From ashes to (fill in the blank). Something like that.
Three cheers for the victory, but I still believe you guys are missing a great opportunity to expose Islam for what it really is, which is a totalitarian theo-political ideology that has as its main goal the subjugation of the world via the imposition of Sharia, and no such ideology is protected by the first amendment of the constitution or any other amendment for that matter. Hence, not only the ground zero supremacist mega mosque should be blocked, but every one of them should be blocked as well since this isn’t a religious freedom issue.
Wars are fought one battle at a time. Gellar and Co. are not "missing" an opportunity; as I see it, they are using strategy to accomplish their goals. However, I couldn't agree with you more abut banning mosques. Someone is going to have to come up with a legal argument to prove that Islam is an ideology, not a religion, and therefore, not protected. Could it be linked to Shintoism, and the worship of the Japanese emperor, which was banned after World War? (At least, worship of the emperor was, I read.) I don't know enough about it; I'm just hoping someone who does know about it comes up with a legal argument that sticks.
I truly fear that we are becoming as England and others, bending to every possible perception of slight against the very ones who are so blatantly anti everything outside of their totalitarian mandates!
They move into an area and demand acquiescence to their desires and phobias of all perceived resistance to their sick beliefs!
Pamela Geller deserves a medal. If the planned mega Mosque was instead a large Christian Cathedral there would be no controversy.
The whole world connects Islam with 911. To deny the connection is no different than calling a circle square. The cry to "Remember the Alamo" should pale compared to the cry to "remember 911" . I suggest that on 9/11/2010 every man, women and child in the United States go outside and yell at the top of their lungs the war cry "Remember 911" "Remember the Towers" seven times. Every employer and school should let their people step outside and scream this battle cry. Who are these people that try so hard to make us all forget our enemy and the people they killed on 911 ?www.ShoutRemember911.com
Honor the dead. Honor their memories. FDNY your sacrifices will not be forgotten. In Memory of the Fallen. Honor the families of those who were burned alive, who experienced the terror of impending death in jets and in the buildings. Get involved. Sign the petition. Contact your representatives. Thanks so much to Pam Geller and Brigitte Gabrielle.
With the placing of a mosque Islam shall also claim the history of that sacred spot and distort it to their liking.
Look at the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul leaving no trace of Christian Constantinople and Byzantine or the Dome of the Rock mosque denying the existence ever of a Jewish temple.
I would like to see the 9/11 picture of the firemen and the American flag, statement —
after 9/11 Bloomberg picture with his picture in arab attire– then the firemen and
flag picture but the flag is now the Islamic crescent moon with Thank You Bloomberg.
Of course there are many combinations of curse for this disgusting rat that could go
with it but we must remember school children ride the buses. I do not know how
he is kept safe from the Police and Firemen of NYC, in my day they would have made
this leftist disappear………….Send him to Mecca in a pig skin……………
"OINK"—— Obviously I'me not kidding"…………………………………William
Thank you for this excellent interview. Kudos to Pamela Geller, Robert Spencer and their allies for fighting for American values and freedom.
Um, how is this a "victory"? Filing a suit is a victory? Don't you actually have to have the case accepted, go to court, then win before you can legitimately claim victory?
trickyblain: Please read the first few paragraphs of this interview. On Monday, the MTA agreed to run the ad as was originally submitted.
Ah. Thanks. My bad!
Whay isn't there a lawsuit against the City of New York on behalf of the church asking for equalt treatment ? They have a compelling case and the 5:4 split in the HIgh Court would work in their favor should it go that far .
Besides , it would put the breaks on the mosque until it's settled.
Congratulations Pamela. You are a true patriot. Thank you for all of all of your hard work. Ditto to Mr. Glazov's last comments.
Why isn't there hate crimes being filed against these people who call for Israel and America to be destroyed?? If anyone else were saying such things they would either 'disappear' or land in prison. That's what needs to happen to these people!!
Never submit.
If they don't build it, then some nutjob won't be able to blow it up some day.
Why can't this be done to STOP this mosque? Bury a PIG where they intend to build it.
http://www.sodahead.com/united-states/how-to-stop… http://grendelreport.posterous.com/ground-zero-mo…
I like that idea…. how about a big pot of pork n beans also!
I plan on running for president in 2048 so.. I PROMISE THIS NATION THE WILL BE NO ISLAMIC STATE! and Lets put a HUGE christian Church where the towers were? then the Islam's will protest… i say they will!! but we will never let them put a mosque as americans, we are fight, true fighters! What would George Washington, Thomas Jefferson or John Adams Say about this ask yourself?
Thanks a lot for this beauty Enjoying article with me. I am Appreciating it very much! Looking Forward to Another Great.
Banquetes