Confronting Pamela Geller
“As a Jew, I am offended to my core. Muslims have no right to invoke Moses and Abraham. This is a delegitimization of Judaism. It is offensive and vile. And while Jesus is not my guy, the same thing goes for him. It is a delegitimization of Christianity. These are not Muslim prophets.”—Pamela Geller
This typical quote from Pamela Geller perfectly represents her perplexing manner of argumentation and the blatant ignorance deeply rooted in her work. In this particular case, Geller takes exception with Islam’s acceptance of the prophethood of Abraham, Moses and Jesus Christ. Whereas most people view common beliefs as a means of building bridges of kinship between Jews, Christians and Muslims, Geller feels Muslim’s belief in such prophets is “offensive and vile.” Apparently she feels that Jews have exclusive rights to believe in Moses and Abraham. Paradoxically, her ignorance has no problem granting Christians the right to invoke Moses and Abraham without delegitimizing Judaism.
Accustomed to providing responses to substantive attacks against Islam, I found it challenging to determine the appropriate manner in which to address the attacks levied against Islam by Geller, as her work is mostly outrageous and irrational. She does not purport to be a scholar of Islam, nor does she possess academic or experiential credentials that provide any unique insight into Islam. Her self-education about Muslims began after 9/11, when she “felt guilty that I didn’t know who had attacked my country.” Deceived by the false premise that Islam attacked this great nation on 9/11, Geller searched for reasons to loathe the Islamic faith, seeking education from those most antagonistic of Islam, such as Bat Ye’or (pseudonym for Gisèle Littman, a Jewish-Egyptian French writer who imputes Christian and Jewish suffering to the theological beliefs of Islam), Ibn Warraq (pseudonym for a Pakistani author well known for writing about leaving Islam) and Daniel Pipes (American author who extensively criticizes Islam but whom Geller eventually rejected due to his belief in the existence of a moderate form of Islam).
Rather than relying on scholarship for substantive arguments against Islam, Geller often resorts to shock-value through outlandish statements. She has falsely claimed that President Obama is a Muslim with the aim of fostering America’s submission to Islam; Arabic is not a language but “the spearhead of an ideological project that is deeply opposed to the United States”; Hitler and Nazism were inspired by Islam (therefore “devout Muslims should be prohibited from military service”); that “Islam is the most anti-Semitic, genocidal ideology in the world”; called for the removal of the Dome of the Rock from the Temple Mount in Jerusalem; bought bus ads offering Muslims an opportunity to leave Islam; and called for boycotts of both Campbell’s soup and Butterball turkeys for offering a certified halaal food line.
Her claims are so bizarre that one struggles to understand whether they are worthy of a response. Indeed, one can understand why Charles Johnson, who runs the blog Little Green Footballs, where Geller used to write, said about her: “That would be Ms. Geller. She has a very long record of absolute lunacy, mixed with bigotry and racism and I am far from the only person to point this out.”