More On Pam Geller

More is coming out on Pam Geller and the recent tragedy in Norway:

“Pamela Geller, the reigning queen of anti-Muslim hysteria, has been feeling intensifying heat since Anders Breivik’s deadly rampage in Norway – and she’s not handling it well.

Geller was one of several prominent anti-Muslim activists cited by Breivik in the 1,500-word manifesto he posted on the Internet hours before his murderous bomb and shooting attack that left 77 Norwegians, mostly teenagers, dead. When news of the attack first broke, Geller published a post on her Atlas Shrugs website all but gloating that she had presaged Islamic violence in Scandinavia – only to discover, embarrassingly, that the attacker was not a jihadist Muslim but a Norwegian national who admired and studied her own rhetoric. Geller awkwardly backtracked, posting a rambling self-defense asserting that Breivik had only mentioned her by name once – while downplaying that he had cited her blog a dozen times, mentioned her co-founding partner of Stop Islamization of America, Robert Spencer, 64 times, and suggested that Spencer should win the Nobel Peace Prize. “

I am reminded that the CST got Geller’s number ages ago.

Update 1: Whenever I post around this topic my moderation queue invariably gets filled with the views of neo-Nazis, Far Rightists, anti-Muslim bigots and other cranks (yes, you know who you are…) wishing to push their racist agenda.

Again, I recommend that they read my comments policy and then sling their hooks.

Update 2: Anders Behring Breivik’s manifesto has been picked apart by the CST and here are a few extracts of their preliminary findings:

“Breivik’s basic narrative, therefore, is one of grievance, resistance to political oppression, conspiracy theory and self-defence of vital interests; and the desperation of the moment demands violence. This is a very common theme in justifications for all forms of terrorism. Moreover, the idea that immigration is a tool used by elites to destroy the white race has been common on the European far right for decades. What is different, and important, in Breivik’s politics is one word: culture.”
…
It is striking that, even as someone who describes himself as “pro-Israel”, Breivik believes that half of all Israeli Jews are enemies who, presumably, must be killed, imprisoned or punished in some other way; as are three-quarters of European and American Jews. Classical antisemitism constructs an image of a typical Jew which bears no relation to reality, but is simply a cipher for all that the antisemite hates and fears. Breivik’s categorisation of the different types of Jews (and Israel) fits this way of thinking perfectly. “

Six Hundred And Thirty-Nine Antisemitic Incidents.

The CST has released its report on Antisemitic Incidents on 2010.

This is the PDF.

As they point out:

“it is 17% more than the 2008 figure of 546 antisemitic incidents, and continues the decade-long trend of rising antisemitic incident levels.”

A must read for anyone really committed to anti-racism.

No Shots

It is no surprise that the EDL are thick as well as being liars, but their latest grasp for sympathy is not going too well, as Nick Lowles describes events:

“Even after Bedfordshire police concluded that no shots had actually be fired, were unsure of the ethnicity of the assailant and even questioned whether there had been a gun in the first place, Geller blogged with the headline: Muslim in Full Islamic Garb Attempts to Shoot and Kill EDL leader.

Geller has a problem with the truth. In fact, the woman is a complete nutter. Geller, like many Tea Partiers, expresses her racism as a “birther” – the racist conspiracy theory that claims president Obama is ineligible to be president, casting him as a non-white “other” and a non-American. In addition to claiming this Obama’s birth certificate is a “forgery,” she’s called president Obama a “third worlder and a coward” who’s “appeas[ing] his Islamic overlords.”

She has perpetuated the lie the President Obama is Muslim. Geller has referred to Obama as “The Muslim president.” Media Matters for America documented that Geller’s blog contains 267 posts tagged, “Muslim in the White House?” She’s gone as far as to seriously make the argument that Barack Obama is the illegitimate child of Malcolm X.

In addition to supporting the EDL, she has also defended Eugene Terre’Blanche, a founder of the white supremacist Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (or AWB). “

Geller is a well known EDL supporter and frankly off her trolley.

PS: Before any of her supporters feel like commenting please read my previous post, Anti-Muslim Bigots, Feck Off.

Update 1: If anyone is curious about Geller’s comments on the Terreblanche, they might do well to read Jeff Goldberg’s post or her comments via the Google cache:

“Monday, April 05, 2010

Every single headline calls Terreblanche a “white supremacist,” alluding to his position in the waning days of the apartheid government, thirty-odd years ago. But the real story here is not that Terreblanche was a “white supremacist” — if he really was (and I know how the left loves to throw around those labels). Whether he was or not, the man was brutally murdered, and I had to go through ten newspaper accounts to find out how he was murdered. The liberal media had to dehumanize him first. And not one newspaper account speaks of Black supremacism — yet that is the really important story in South Africa today. All I see in South Africa is Black supremacism. Terreblanche may have been a white supremacist, but he’s the dead one. “

Geller can’t even use Google to determine Terreblanche’s background and the neo-Nazi emblem of the AWB. Maybe the Nazi salutes given at his funeral might hint at the political thinking of AWB’s members?

Steel’s Hatchet Job.

I should say upfront that I had a bit of time for Mark Steel, the comedian.

He was often very witty, his past lectures on the radio were funny and informative.

So I am all the more disappointed when I read his hatchet job in the Independent.

We can all argue and disagree about what happened on the Mavi Marmara, but to leave out whole chunks of the IDF soldiers recollections simply because it doesn’t fit the desired political narrative is a little bit annoying.

Mark Gardener explains it better.

I had hoped that when Mark Steel left the SWP that he would leave behind all of their dodgy tactics, pettiness and clumsy sleight of hand politics, which makes much of the British Left a rather uninviting place to be.

I suppose it is a case of:

“you can take the activist away from the SWP, but you can’t get the SWP out of the one-time activist.”

(H/T: Engage)

500 members?

I have no words for this:

“Police have launched an urgent investigation into a horrific Facebook group that gave graphic details of anti-Semitic incidents perpetrated by its members against Ilford’s Jewish community.

The group, created by a student at Loxford School of Science and Technology, attracted more than 500 members in two weeks following its launch last month and featured teenagers boasting about engaging in anti-Semitic behaviour.”

Record High.

The Press Association reports:

“More than 924 reports of bigoted violence and abuse were received last year by The Community Security Trust (CST).

The charity, which monitors anti-Semitism in Britain, said the figures marked the worst year since records began in 1984. They included violent street attacks, arson, egg-throwing, racist graffiti, website hacking and hate mail.
…
The majority of incidents recorded by the CST, from violence to desecration of Jewish properties, took place in London (460), followed by Manchester (206), Hertfordshire (48) and Leeds (35).

They included an incident in which a Jewish man driving an electric wheelchair was rammed by a car after leaving a synagogue. The driver shouted “Jew, Jew” at him but he escaped with minor injuries. In Yorkshire, strips of bacon were arranged in the shape of a star of David and stuck the fence of a home where a Jewish family lived with the word “Jewboy” written underneath. A 12-year-old girl, the only Jew at her school, was attacked by a mob of up to 20 fellow pupils who pulled her hair and chanted: “death to Jews, kill all Jews.” “

I can’t help thinking that the climate created by hostility to Israelis, everyday Israelis in terms of negative boycotts, pejorative language in the media and a decidedly unhealthy focus on one country in the Middle East, has contributed to racial attacks on Jews in Britain.

Those involved in campaigning against Israelis bear some responsibility for that climate of antagonism and the resultant racial violence.

Update 1: The CST blog reports on an extreme attack in Ilford, and figures for France, which have risen by 75%.

Update 2: Topically, students should read the CST guide, A Student’s Guide to Antisemitism on Campus [ A PDF download].

In fact, everyone should read it, as it is well written and easy to digest.

Update 3: Engage has good coverage, with Mark Gardner in the comments threads.

Update 4: If ever you wanted to see an indicator of social anti-Jewish racism on the web, then take a trip to the Comment is Free thread, which discusses the rise in physical attacks on Jews in Britain during 2009. It is on Britain’s leading liberal newspaper’s web site, the Guardian and yet its comments threads are littered with snide remarks about Jews and Israelis. Terrible. What an indictment.

Anti-Muslim Bigots, Feck Off.

Whenever you comment on one of the more contentious or heated political topics of the day your blog is liable to be pasted with replies from various cranks, be they neo-Nazis, anti-Muslim bigots or fanatical anti Israeli haters, that’s what happens.

My recent comment on the SIOE seems to have ignited the foaming-at-the-mouth, defend-the-gates-of-Vienna cranks.

So for the benefit of Stephen Gash and Pamela Geller, just so you understand my views and why I don’t want your particular nauseating kind of racism littering up my comments boxes, all I have to say to you is:

Feck off you anti-Muslim bigots

I am not interested in debating with neo-Nazis, the far right or Genocide deniers, such as Pamela Geller, and I certainly don’t want them on my blog.

If you are in any doubt read the comments policy, now feck off you anti-Muslim bigots.

CST’s Got SIOE’s Mark.

Over at JC is an article warning how people should not be taken in by the bigotry and xenophobia pushed by the Stop the Islamisation of Europe group, and CST are rightly critical:

“The CST has drawn attention to the Islamaphobic comments on SIOE’s website, and compared the group to the English Defence League, and the BNP’s Nick Griffin, who have attempted to gain support from Jews through pro-Israel and anti-Muslim statements.

The blog singled out an central image on the SIOE’s website, which shows a skull with blood dripping from its mouth on the front of a mosque, where the minaret and crescent moon and star symbol is also covered in blood.

On its blog, the CST says: “This image tells us everything we need to know about SIOE and Islamophobia.

“If a Jew cannot understand why the image is racist, or hateful, or bigoted then they should try imagining it as a synagogue: with blood dripping from a Star of David; with blood dripping down the rabbi’s pulpit; and with blood dripping from the mouth of a skull that wears an Israeli army helmet.”

The CST emphasises that while the Jewish community should be concerned about extreme Islamist groups. Jews had a duty to stand up to prejudice and hatred

“The fact that Muslims are the current target simply means that it is Muslims who should be the recipients of anti-racist solidarity.

“Hatred, division, cycles of inter-communal violence, intimidation and polarisation feed the extremists on every side. They encourage social division and leave all minorities vulnerable. Anti-Muslim bigotry is a vital recruiting sergeant for both the far right, and its Islamist extremist counterparts.

“It generates votes for the BNP and, at the furthest ends of this political spectrum, it even provides the fuel for terrorism. British Jews should have no part of it.”

Losing Sight Of The Dividing Line.

Thanks to Engage for pointing out a post on the CST blog, which makes a comparison between the type of coverage given to the Holocaust denying, Ahmadinejad.

No one in the West, and particularly Guardian readers with access to the Internet, should have any illusions about Ahmadinejad, it seems that barely a month goes by when he is either fiddling elections or denying the Holocaust, as he did recently on the annual Al Quds Day as RTE reports:

“Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said the Holocaust was a ‘myth’, reiterating comments that sparked outrage around the world.

‘The very existence of this regime is an insult to the dignity of the people,’ the hardliner said as he addressed the annual Quds Day rally in Tehran referring to Israel.

‘They (Western powers) launched the myth of the Holocaust. They lied, they put on a show and then they support the Jews.’

‘If as you claim the Holocaust is true, why can a study not be allowed?’ the Iranian president said to chants of ‘Death to Israel’ from the crowd gathered for the annual display of solidarity with the Palestinians.

‘The pretext for establishing the Zionist regime is a lie… a lie which relies on an unreliable claim, a mythical claim, and the occupation of Palestine has nothing to do with the Holocaust,’ he added.

Similar comments made by Mr Ahmadinejad shortly after his first election as president in 2005 also sparked an international outcry. “

So no one should be in any doubt concerning Ahmadinejad’s blatant Holocaust denial, except those at the Guardian, as Mark Gardner points out:

“Now of course the Guardian would never mean it like that – well, not like Ahmadinejad means it anyway. And of course the Guardian would neither threaten another Holocaust, nor deny the last one.

Nevertheless, the Guardian as an institution – and as a consequence much of its constituency – has clearly allowed its hostility against Israel to erode both its understanding of antisemitism; and its vigilance against imagery that evokes deeply rooted antisemitic stereotypes.

This is not so much a conscious decision, or some covert antisemitic conspiracy: it is simply what happens when, over time, basically decent people lose sight of the dividing line between criticism and hatred, and between scathing political comment and racist abuse. There are, of course, exceptions to the rule at both the Guardian and throughout the wider Left, but they are swimming against the tide.”

Update 1: Not forgetting that even Juan Cole finally admits Ahmadinejad is articulating antisemitism, a welcome acknowledgment, but about 4 years too late as Adam Holland ably dissects.

Bigotry In The Press.

The New Statesman was, at one point in time, considered almost obligatory reading for anyone interested in politics or current affairs in Britain, but has suffered more recently from some internal turmoil and staffing changes.

A rather predictable article has just been published called, “Does Israel “cause” anti-Semitism?”

The author makes it very clear that he thinks antisemitism is wrong, bravo, but then proceeds with a time honoured, or time worn argument, that antisemitism is actually related to the behaviour of Israelis:

“But I do find it both tragic and ironic that the state of Israel – created ostensibly to protect Jews from across the world from hatred, prejudice and violence – through its actions today, and through its self-proclaimed role as the leader and home of world Jewry, provokes such awful anti-Semitic attacks against diaspora Jews who have nothing to do with the actions of the IDF or the policies of Netanyahu, Olmert and Sharon. “

Astute readers will remember this argument being trotted out by every bigot under the sun in various guises, for example, “Jews wouldn’t get attacked if they didn’t act as they did”, etc.

It is not a very pretty or coherent argument for what would be Britain’s premier weekly political journal.

From the comments Dave Rich of CST rightly argues:

“Let me explain some of the basic dynamics of hate crime. The people who are primarily responsible for racist hate crimes are the racists who perpetrate them; the “cause” is their bigotry and hatred for a chosen ‘other’.

Different racists respond to different stimuli: so, for instance, when Prince Harry wore a Nazi uniform a few years ago, or when Ken Livingstone was censured for his “concentration camp” comments, those events also acted as triggers for short-term surges in antisemitic incidents, but the incidents they triggered were of a different nature, and seemingly from different types of perpetrators, than the incidents triggered by the Israel/Hamas war in Gaza in January of this year.

In all cases, though, there is a very big difference between the stimulus, or trigger, and the “cause”. You would not write an article lamenting that fact that Muslim immigration “caused” the recent arson attack on the Luton Islamic Centre, or any of the other Islamophobic attacks that have been in the news recently, and rightly so. Don’t make excuses for racists, and don’t use racism as an excuse to score political points. It’s demeaning and not something the NS, of all journals, should be doing.

Most people who watched events in Gaza, even most of those who got angry about what Israel did, did not then go out and attack or abuse Jews. There is no direct cause and effect between the two. That is why CST’s reports talk of the response to events in Gaza being the trigger for incidents, rather than simply the events in Gaza themselves. “

It is a shame that a periodical, such as the New Statesman, is reduced to regurgitating bigotry, and I finally remember why I ceased buying it.

CST Reminds “Anti-Zionists” Of What’s What.

The CST has a follow up to their recent report, which states something worth repeating, several times over, just so “anti-Zionists” get the message:

“Let’s be clear about something else, too, before anyone makes the familiar accusation: this is not a call for anti-Israel campaigners to stop their activities, despite what some may claim. It would be wrong to tarnish all with a single brush. People are perfectly entitled to campaign against Israel and criticise its actions or policies, just as they are entitled to do so against the actions or policies of any other state. But that does not mean that they can disregard or contextualise any associated antisemitism in a manner that they would not dream of doing were it any other form of racism.

Read on.

CST Report 2008.

A new report from CST covering antisemitic discourse in 2008 has just been released.

Given the prevailing political climate I don’t expect that it will receive much publicity from the usual suspects, CiF, etc.,

The CST blog is here.

The main CST site.