Leftist Protesters Denounce Islamorealism Ads, Call for Censorship
Last week, protesters gathered in White Plains, New York to denounce hatred. Were they protesting against murderous Islamic jihad terror attacks against innocent civilians in Israel and elsewhere? Were they protesting the escalating persecution of Christians in Egypt, Hindus in Pakistan and Bangladesh, and religious minorities all over the Muslim world? Or was it maybe a protest against the arrest of a 14-year-old girl with Down syndrome for blasphemy in Pakistan after an imam planted burnt pages of the Qur'an among some trash she had burned?
No. None of the above. The "hatred" the protesters came together to denounce was my Islamorealism ad that has been running along the Metro-North train line: "19,250 deadly Islamic attacks since 9/11/01, and counting. It's not Islamophobia, it's Islamorealism."
Only a tiny handful of protesters turned out -- four or five at most, but of course the press coverage they received was lavish and respectful. Lohud.com's coverage was typically fawning, leading off by saying: "As supporters held up signs protesting Islamophobia, a coalition of community leaders and residents gathered downtown today to denounce anti-Muslim advertisements posted at Metro North stations throughout Westchester County."
Note the use of the term "Islamophobia," a word that Islamic supremacists coined in order to intimidate people away from resisting jihad, as if it were an established reality. And "a coalition of community leaders and residents" that consisted of fewer than ten people and probably fewer than five. There is no reference anywhere in the article to how many showed at the protest, or a picture that would enable the reader to tell that it was a handful, if that. But our protests, like those at Ground Zero in 2010 and 2011 that drew tens of thousands of people, garnered no media coverage.
Present was Greenburgh Supervisor Paul Feiner, who declared: "I believe we should not be encouraging hate, we should be encouraging people to live and work together. ... I believe it's time for everybody to work harder to live together and not incite hatred." He spoke about ancient conflicting claims over Jerusalem but said nothing about the jihadist hatred that gave rise to those conflicting claims. He was silent about the murderous hatred that motivated the 19,250 Islamic jihad attacks mentioned in my ad. Like all leftists, he associates "hatred" not with jihad terror and Islamic supremacism, but with attempts to call attention to it and resist it.
Feiner also wants my ads censored. According to Lohud.com, he "called on the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to denounce the signs, suggesting a disclaimer be placed on Metro North platforms saying the agency does not support the advertisement's message." There is no record of Feiner ever calling for such a disclaimer on the genuinely hateful anti-Israel ads that ran on the same train platforms.
According to the left, protesting slaughter, murder, and persecution is hate. Where were these nincompoops when the real victim of jihad, Israel, was the subject of a smear and defamation campaign on Metro-North? Why weren't they protesting then?
Another protester, Priscilla Reed, said: "The bigotry and hate this ad directs at Muslims and Islam is totally unacceptable in Westchester or anywhere else. Our purpose is to raise awareness about what this ad represents, and mobilize action in support of our Muslim neighbors."
I'd like to know what Priscilla Reed objects to. Does she think that there haven't been over 19,000 jihad attacks since 911? Does she not know that every one of them had the imprimatur of a Muslim cleric? And what have her "Muslim neighbors" done to root out the beliefs and attitudes that led to these attacks from the Muslim community?
The hypocrisy of Feiner and the other protesters was stunning. Another one of the tiny group, a local Muslim named Khushro Elley, whined about discrimination, saying: "I feel discriminated against, and I feel under the microscope." He invoked McCarthyism and the plight of Japanese-Americans during World War II, and he even compared his feelings on seeing the ad to "the way the Jews might have felt when they were discriminated against. Or even today, as the blacks might feel, because there is so much discrimination against them."
Where does my ad call for discrimination against anyone? And when did Japanese-Americans or blacks or Jews or anyone else commit 19,000 terror attacks? My ad is merely calling for honest recognition of a problem. If Khushro Elley is a "moderate," why isn't he protesting against jihadi slaughter instead of against my ad?
And in general, where are the protests against the tens of thousands of jihad attacks -- now 19,554 since September 11, 2001? Where are the protests against the persecution, oppression, and subjugation of non-Muslims living in Muslim countries? Where are the protests against the Muslim persecution of Coptic Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, Bahais, etc.?
San Francisco set a dangerous precedent by donating the money from my ads to leftist pro-jihad groups, because now this group is demanding that Metro-North do the same.
This shows just how urgently needed these ads are, and how thick is the denial and obfuscation. Help me run these ads. People who aren't completely brainwashed by the left need to hear the truth more urgently than ever.
Pamela Geller is the publisher of AtlasShrugs.com and the author of the WND Books title Stop the Islamization of America: A Practical Guide to the Resistance.