Pamela Geller (born 1958) is an American anti-Muslim, far-right political activist, blogger and commentator. Geller promoted birther conspiracy theories about Barack Obama, saying that he was born in Kenya and that he is a Muslim.
In 2006, Geller reproduced the controversial Danish cartoons of Muhammad published by the Jyllands-Posten newspaper on her blog. She came to further notice in 2010 for leading the campaign against the proposed Park51 Islamic community center in New York City, which Geller called the "Ground Zero Mega Mosque." She is the president of Stop Islamization of America (also known as the American Freedom Defense Initiative), an anti-Muslim group which she co-founded with Robert B. Spencer. Since 2013, she has bought anti-Muslim ads on public transit networks in various cities. She has also denied genocides where Muslims were victims, including the Bosnian genocide and the Rohingya genocide. The British government barred Geller's entry into the UK in 2013, citing her anti-Muslim activism, and saying her presence would “not be conducive to the public good.” She has been targeted by Islamic fundamentalists in a number of assassination attempts.
Geller launched her first blog, Atlas Shrugs, in 2004. It was succeeded by the Geller Report. Both websites have been known for promoting falsehoods and conspiracy theories.
Early life Geller is the third of four sisters born to a Jewish family; her father, Reuben Geller, is a textile manufacturer, and her mother is Lillian Geller. She grew up in Hewlett Harbor, on New York's Long Island. She helped out in her father's business, where she learned to speak fluent Spanish. Two of her sisters became doctors, and the third became a teacher. Geller attended Lynbrook High School and Hofstra University, leaving before she completed her degree.
Career
Media During most of the 1980s, Geller worked at the New York Daily News—first as a financial analyst, and then in advertising and marketing. Subsequently, she was associate publisher of The New York Observer from 1989 through 1994. In a Village Voice interview, Geller indicated that she had only become political since the 9/11 attacks, after which she began reading authors on Islam such as Bat Ye'or and Ibn Warraq, saying she "spent years studying the matter before I started blogging."
Political activism Geller created a blog called Atlas Shrugs (a reference to Atlas Shrugged, the novel by Ayn Rand) in 2004. Geller was a frequent and prolific commenter on the blog Little Green Footballs when, encouraged by a fellow commenter, she started her own blog in late 2004. She has referred to her blog as “my living room and kitchen—a place where she can kick back and yell, like some people shout at their TV,” in contrast to her books and published articles, which are “more studied and more measured.” The blog gained attention in 2006, when Geller reprinted the controversial cartoons of Muhammad that were originally published in the Danish Jyllands-Posten newspaper. In 2007, her campaign against an Arabic language public school in Brooklyn was said to have played "an important role" in the resignation of its principal, Debbie Almontaser. The blog has been criticized by progressive Media Matters for America. Conversely, it has been praised by Caroline Glick, managing editor of The Jerusalem Post, who hailed the blog's coverage of Muslim "honor killings" and called her "an intrepid blogger," specifically for Geller's coverage of treatment of women under Sharia law and in Islamic countries.
In 2010, Geller co-founded the American Freedom Defense Initiative organization (AFDI), also known as Stop Islamization of America, with Robert Spencer, an anti-Muslim activist. Geller is a co-founder of Stop Islamization of Nations, an umbrella organization that includes Stop Islamization of America and Stop Islamisation of Europe. Both SIOA and AFDI are described as exhibiting anti-Muslim bigotry by the Anti-Defamation League. The Southern Poverty Law Center classifies them as hate groups.
At the 2010 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), Geller criticized the Pentagon's report on the 2009 Fort Hood shooting for failing to talk about the religious motivations behind the attack. Geller was forbidden to appear at CPAC in 2013. Geller attributed her exclusion from the event to her having accused CPAC board members Grover Norquist and Suhail Khan of being “members of the Muslim Brotherhood and secret Islamist agents.”
The British government barred Geller's entry into the UK in 2013, citing her anti-Muslim activism, and saying her presence would “not be conducive to the public good.”
In April 2013, Rabbi Michael White and Jerome Davidson, in denouncing Geller as an anti-Muslim bigot, opposed her presentation on Sharia law at a Long Island synagogue. It was canceled due to security concerns. Israeli columnist Caroline Glick disputed the assertions by White and Davidson, and argued that Geller opposed jihadists, not all Muslims. In May 2013, the Jewish Defense League of Canada invited Geller to speak in Toronto, Canada. Initially, Geller was invited by Rabbi Mendel Kaplan to speak at Chabad@Flamingo. Because Kaplan was a chaplain with the York Regional Police, the police's Hate Crimes Unit stated that Kaplan's invitation conflicted with “our long-held position of inclusivity.” Kaplan consequently cancelled Geller's invitation, and she spoke at the Toronto Zionist Centre.
Geller has been a contributor to The Washington Times, Newsmax, Human Events, WorldNetDaily, the American Thinker, Israel National News and Breitbart News. She has written a column titled "Defending the West" for WorldNetDaily starting in 2011.
She runs the website, The Geller Report, which is registered through her organization, the American Freedom Defense Initiative. In October 2018, the website falsely claimed that a Swedish Christmas concert had been cancelled, so as to not offend Muslims. In November 2018, the website falsely claimed that former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn had been cleared of criminal wrong-doing in the Russia probe. The website described the Russia probe as a "coup" against President Donald Trump. The website promoted falsehoods about the COVID-19 pandemic.
Park51 In May 2010, Geller began a campaign against the proposed Park51 Islamic community center and mosque, which she called the "Ground Zero Mega Mosque." Geller claimed that Park51 is viewed by Muslims as a "triumphal" monument built on "conquered land," and asserted: “I'm not leading the charge against the Islamic center near Ground Zero. The majority of Americans—70%—find this deeply insulting, offensive. To call it anti-Muslim is a gross misrepresentation, and to say that I'm responsible for all this emotion, again a gross misrepresentation.” When asked whether she agreed “that the terrorists who attacked us on 9/11 were practicing a perverted form of Islam, and that is not what is going to be practiced at this mosque,” she responded: “I will say that the Muslim terrorists were practicing pure Islam, original Islam.” Based upon unsubstantiated evidence, Geller has claimed that Park51's project financing had potential ties to terrorists. Geller came to prominence over her opposition to the mosque's construction. According to Time magazine, Geller "played a pivotal role in making Park51 a national issue." According to Stephanie Wright in Fear of Muslims?, Geller's language in opposing the mosque was repeated by mainstream politicians, such as Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich.
The Council on American–Islamic Relations and the progressive watchdog group Media Matters for America criticized the media for giving attention to Geller.Hogue, Ilyse (May 23, 2012). "Getting rid of census survey is wasteful". CNN. Andrew C. McCarthy, writing in the conservative magazine National Review, criticized the CAIR spokesperson's remarks on the matter, citing his remark: “I wouldn’t want to create the impression that I wouldn’t like the government of the United States to be Islamic.” According to Cord Jefferson in the American Prospect, “the media often craves controversy over substance,” and paid "disproportionate attention" to the Park51 story, thus furnishing “a small-time political blogger with an obsession” an opportunity “to hijack the news cycle for months.”
Public transit ads Stop Islamization of America has sponsored ads which carried instigative messages, such as "Fatwa on Your Head?" and "Leaving Islam?" in several cities, including New York City and Miami, which pointed readers to a website called RefugefromIslam.com. Geller and FDI/SIOA paid to run ads on the transit systems of New York City, Washington, D.C., and San Francisco. The ad approved to run on the New York City Subway and San Francisco buses read: “In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man. Support Israel. Defeat Jihad.” One ad had a picture of the World Trade Center in flames, with a quote from the Quran: “Soon we shall cast terror into the hearts of the unbelievers.” Another ad showed a man in a keffiyah, with the text: “Killing Jews is Worship that draws us close to Allah. That's His Jihad. What's yours?”
New York's MTA initially refused to display the ads in the New York City Subway system, but the decision was overturned in July 2012 by the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, which ruled that the ad was protected speech under the First Amendment, and that the MTA's actions were unconstitutional. The judge, Paul A. Engelmayer, held in a 35-page opinion that the rejected ad was “not only protected speech — it is core political speech ... [which as such] is afforded the highest level of protection under the First Amendment.”
Opponents argued that an ad with the text, “In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man. Support Israel. Defeat Jihad” implied Muslims are savages. Columnists in the New York Post and The Algemeiner argued the opposite—that it was insulting to assume Muslims will identify with violent jihad. Some Muslims argued that Geller's use of the word jihad is identical to Islamic extremists', and too common in general American usage. There is an effort to focus on the notion of jihad as a striving, but find "rebranding" difficult in today's culture. The Jewish Council for Public Affairs called the ad "bigoted, divisive," and JCPA President Rabbi Steve Gutow said: “The fact that ads have been placed in the subway attacking Israel does not excuse the use of attack ads against Muslims.” Israel Kasnett, editor for the Jerusalem Post, argued that Geller is right in her description of violent jihad. Jewish groups, such as the Jewish Community Relations Council and the Anti-Defamation League, have “successfully persuaded the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency to donate proceeds from the ads to the city's Human Rights Commission.” In a column for The Wall Street Journal, conservative columnist William McGurn criticized the "media" for being “too quick to assume the ad is an attack on the religion and all Muslims.”