Padraig Reidy drew up a little list of talking points for the Garland shootings, to save everyone some effort.
Geller’s organization is racist, people have every right to this that and the other, people don’t have the right to kill.
The last two are less obvious and less invoked.
8. The people who attempt to shoot others for drawing cartoons do not do so in order to combat Islamophobia. If anything, they do so to encourage Islamophobia. Jihadists and Caliph-chasers have a vested interest in division between Muslims and non-Muslims
9. Well-meaning though it may be, casting jihadist attacks as a symptom of “Muslim anger” is to buy into stereotypes of Muslims as irrational and violent, and ignore the complexity of Islamist and jihadist politics
Here’s my addition: Pamela Geller is not an ally of secular liberals.
True, but if you are in Saudi Arabia, you better think long and hard before you break one.
Which is precisely why we in non-Muslim-dominated countries need to fight to protect the right to free expression for all, even if it makes lots of people feel bad.
Best possible outcome for Geller, beyond her wildest dreams. Very sad. Idiots doing just what other idots want.
https://www.facebook.com/144310995587370/photos/a.271728576178944.71555.144310995587370/977641682254293/?l=df160b0106
You know I observed my mother watching this on the news (CNN) and had the opportunity to observe her reactions to it. I
Sorry about that last comment. My mother who is a Muslim had a reaction to this thing that I found hilarious and instructive at once. She said in Jamaican Creole “Dem rahtid idiot aggo mash up de world”. Translation “These (insert semi-expletive English word – there is probably no close English approximation to the word ‘rahtid’) idiots are going to destroy the planet. After laughing a little at her outburst, I asked her to expand on what she meant.
Her bottom line was that violent jihadists and racists idiots like Geller feed off each other. Her view was that neither Geller nor violent jihadists presented a view of her faith that she recognizes or lives. A part of the problem is that violent jihadists and people like Geller are often the loudest voices.
This is exactly the kind of spirited defense of free speech that we need
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2010/09/09/setting-the-koran-on-fire-vs-s/
Yes, Geller is a crackpot, a conspiracy nut of the silliest stripe. But holding a ‘draw Mo’ contest, in a hall that had been used for a pro-murder rally four months previously, is not off the charts crazy or wrong.
A cartoonist in the northwest had a web-based ‘draw Muhammad day’ event several years back. She had to go into hiding as a lone citizen under threat.
It IS disturbing that a nut like Geller can get such a huge security presence for a vanity event. Where was such protection for Charlie?
Every lynching in the ‘old’ south was an expression of Christian/White ‘anger.’ And a lot of people, who should have known better, would rationalize those killings too.