The 'anti-Muslim' bus ads

IS PRESIDENT OBAMA an Islamophobe? Does he hate Muslims?

Those pushing that lie to inflame Muslims are anti-West, anti-Christian, anti-Jewish, anti-democratic and anti-modernity jihadis.

In this regard - and probably in this regard only - President Obama and Pamela Geller are on the same page. They are anti-radical Islam.

Obama is careful with his words. Geller, co-founder of the American Freedom Defense Initiative, is not, often extending her disdain to all of Islam. Her occasional bomb-throwing language allows critics to call her a hatemonger. That's their point of view.

During a phone interview, I ask Geller if she is anti-Muslim. "This is part of the Islamist supremacist narrative," she says. "I oppose an ideology that calls for the annihilation of the nonbeliever."

That isn't anti-Muslim, she says.

On the day we spoke, a French civilian was beheaded in Algeria by jihadis. Where are our values when those of us who oppose such barbarity are condemned and the ideology isn't, she asks.

Seeking to expand her campaign of anti-jihadist posters on mass transportation, Geller was turned down by SEPTA, probably because it sensed a whiff of the "C-word" - controversy.

The ads are controversial. They are on the streets of New York and Washington, D.C., and coming to San Francisco, after courts ruled they are First Amendment-protected political speech.

SEPTA disagreed; Geller sued in federal court. I hope she wins, not because I agree with all she says, but because she has a right to say it, and maybe there's a need for us to hear it.

The bus ad Geller wants to run shows a photo of Adolf Hitler "with his staunch ally, the leader of the Muslim world, Haj Amin al-Husseini."

Critics called it erroneous because there is no "leader of the Muslim world." That is true, but totally misses the big picture.

Al-Husseini was the Muslim Grand Mufti, or leader, of Jerusalem from 1921 until 1937 when he fled to avoid arrest for his part in a revolt against the British. He then cozied up to Hitler and made propaganda broadcasts for both Nazi Germany and fascist Italy.

The righthand side of the ad says "Islamic Jew hatred" is "in the Quran," and indeed it is - and Christian hatred, too. But other verses are tolerant. This ad goes wrong by focusing on the Quran rather than Islamic extremists, as some of her other ads do.

Geller uses a howitzer when a sharpshooter would be better and some of her other comments cross the line, but this ad doesn't.

There are moderate Muslims - more than 100 Muslim leaders from around the world on Wednesday issued a letter repudiating ISIS - but Geller (and she is not alone) believes Islam by definition can't be moderate because the Quran is not.

The point here isn't agreement, it is her right to say it. A Daily News story earlier in the week quoted Temple University law professor Burton Caine as saying what SEPTA is doing "is absolutely prohibited."

I think Geller imagines herself as a Paul Revere riding the Internet shouting "The Islamists are coming!" to awaken the sleeping villagers. She is a provocateur, and feels she has to be.

The Daily News story also said AFDI has been "identified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center" and Geller as "a far-right blogger."

Geller is a far-right blogger, but let me put SPLC's evaluation of AFDI into context: SPLC is a far-left group. It depends on your point of view.

One way to marginalize people is to call them hatemongers, libtards, Islamophobes, racists, misogynists, homophobes, America-haters, commies. That's easier than debating their ideas.

Free debate is imperative to a free society, even when - especially when - some take offense.

Phone: 215-854-5977

On Twitter: @StuBykofsky

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