Hate Group Leader Pamela Geller Makes Up a Myth About the SPLC
Geller continues a warped orbit around a white dwarf star of hate in some alternate universe where Birchers and white supremacists are the good guys.
Most clear-thinking Americans can tell the difference between the real but limited threat posed by Islamic terrorists and the utterly insane theory that an entire religion is conspiring to take over the Western world. But then, Geller has a hard time separating facts from imagination.
Take, for example, the reference in her book to the Southern Poverty Law Center, whom she despises for having designated her organization, Stop Islamization of America (SIOA), as a hate group. The passage, reprinted from a February post on Geller’s Atlas Shrugs blog, creates an entirely fictitious history of the SPLC (which publishes this blog).
It reads, “Before the collapse of the Soviet Union, the SPLC was designated as a Communist front. [Geller doesn’t say by whom.] It was essentially run by a couple, Anne and Carl Braden, who were Community Party USA members. They had been identified in sworn testimony, and they made no attempt to deny the allegations. They would be proud that their legacy remains intact today: their “heirs” – destroyers and America-haters — continue their work to subvert and destroy America.”
Heretofore, no one has disputed that the SPLC was founded in 1971 by Alabama civil rights lawyers Morris Dees and Joe Levin, both of whom remain active in the organization today. The Bradens, though renowned as courageous white champions of black civil rights in the heart of a racially intolerant South – and by no definition “destroyers” or “America-haters” – were never associated with SPLC.
“They didn’t have anything to do with the Center,” Levin reiterated Tuesday.
Heidi Beirich, the SPLC’s director of research, politely asked Geller for a correction. Beirich wrote, “Hi there. I just thought you might want to know that the section of your book on the founding of SPLC is completely wrong. Our founders are Morris Dees and Joe Levin. The Bradens have never played a role in the SPLC. I think you have confused us with someone or something else. We’d appreciate a correction.”
Geller, however, insisted her tall tale was accurate.
