Pam Geller : ‘A slam from the SPLC is a badge of honor’
Pamela Geller is pretty worked up about the Southern Poverty Law Center’s designation of her group, Stop Islamization of America, as a hate group. But not because she gives the designation any credence. On the contrary, Geller — the blogger behind Atlas Shrugs and one of the most vociferous opponents to a planned Muslim community center near Ground Zero in New York City — says “a slam from the SPLC is a badge of honor.”
Stop Islamization of America was included as a hate group in the SPLC’s Spring 2011 “Intelligence Report.” The 9/11 Christian Center at Ground Zero group also made the list. The SPLC considers both groups “anti-Muslim.”
On her blog last Friday, Geller wrote that the SPLC had “slandered our human rights organization,” and called the SPLC a “subversive organization.” On Saturday, in a post titled “Southern Poverty Law Fraud Center,” Geller posted pictures of what she said is SPLC founder Morris Dees’ posh Montgomery home, as well as what she said are his divorce papers.
In a press release reacting to the news, Geller defended her group and further bashed the SPLC.
“It’s outrageous that the SPLC designates a group dedicated to protecting the freedom of speech, the freedom of conscience, and legal equality for all Americans as a ‘hate group,’” she said. “The SPLC, instead of standing for those freedoms, is carrying water for the real haters, the real neo-Nazi Jew-haters: the forces of Islamic supremacism and jihad. The SPLC doesn’t even have a category for Islamic jihadi groups. The greatest threat facing our nation, our people, our world, and they are shilling for them.”