And all because I refuse to go insane like so many others have: Civil War Raging in Right-Wing Blogosphere.

I’ll just deal with one of the lies contained in the quotes in this article:

“He chose to portray the Brussels Conference as evil and he unconscionably slandered the people who attended,” said Dymphna, one of the editors of Gates of Vienna.

Fact: my very first post about this conference contained no attacks on any of these people, no “slander,” and absolutely did not “portray the conference as evil.” In fact, it was a pretty mild warning about the participation of Vlaams Belang and Sweden Democrats. Here’s the post in its entirety:

A coalition of Europeans and Americans is organizing to resist Islamization.

UPDATE at 10/19/07 2:06:09 pm:

It’s important to note that not all the people who are hitching a ride on the anti-Islamization movement are doing it for honorable reasons. There are serious issues around the participation of Filip Dewinter (of the ultra-nationalist Vlaams Belang party, successor to Vlaams Blok). And LGF reader “Dave of Sweden” points out another problematic member:

Unfortunately, the Swedish representative Ekeroth is a member of a pretty vile party called Sverigedemokraterna (Sweden democrats), which was originally an openly racist organization. Recently they’ve tried to put up a different facade, but I’m not convinced.

UPDATE at 10/19/07 4:04:49 pm:

Some readers are taking issue with “Dave of Sweden’s” characterization of Sverigedemokraterna. In the interest of fairness, here’s their website so readers can investigate their current policies for themselves: Sverigedemokraterna.

In return for urging reasonable caution over the participation of bad people in the conference, Pamela Geller launched her first vicious, over the top attack, and was quickly joined by the other so-called “anti-jihadists” in a smear campaign that continues to this day. Geller has written on her blog that I’m “a traitor” who deserves to be “flogged in public,” and she has posted videos comparing me to Adolf Hitler (Robert Spencer joined her in this). The sheer hatefulness directed at me that continues to be posted at her site, Gates of Vienna, and Jihad Watch speaks for itself.

If their reaction had not been so absurdly vehement and nasty, I might not have been so motivated to dig into the history and associations of the Vlaams Belang and other Eurofascist groups. But the ugly reaction raised my curiosity; what were they afraid of? And the more I researched and learned about these groups, the more appalled I was that people like Geller and Gates of Vienna were trying to cover up the truth about them by attacking me.

So in an ironic way, these people have only themselves to blame for the facts that have come to light about their newfound friends on the European far right.

UPDATE at 4/21/09 3:56:22 pm:

Even today, Gates of Vienna continues to pimp the Vlaams Belang, and their leaders, Filip DeWinter and Frank Vanhecke.

A reminder, since they’re obviously hoping that people will forget: in February 2007, during a visit to the United States in which they met with numerous extreme right wing personalities (including Pat Buchanan), Filip DeWinter and Frank Vanhecke appeared on “The Political Cesspool,” an openly white supremacist radio show, promoted at the website of David Duke: Vlaams Belang and the US White Supremacist Cesspool.