Who is anti-Islamic activist Pamela Geller?
“I am the number one target of the Islamic State [ISIS] right now,’’ Pamela Geller told Boston.com on Thursday. “I am standing up to them while the political and media elites cower and kowtow.’’
Boston police commissioner William Evans said on Today Thursday morning that Geller, known for her anti-Islamic campaigns in the U.S. and abroad, may have been the initial target of a Boston-based terror plot. Evans agreed when Today host Savannah Guthrie suggested that the intentions of the now-deceased suspect in that plot were “wishful thinking.’’
How does one draw the attention of ISIS?
The Southern Poverty Law Center has called Geller “the anti-Muslim movement’s most visible and flamboyant figurehead.’’ Organizing protests outside mosques, hosting a “draw Muhammad’’ contest, and working with international politicians outspoken in their condemnation of Islam in its entirety, Geller is unapologetically anti-Muslim.
“This is a showdown for the freedom of speech,’’ Geller said.
The president of Stop Islamization of America and the American Freedom Defense Initiative, Geller has been an active voice against Islam for years now. In 2014, Muslim group CAIR, the Council of American-Islamic Relations, denounced anti-Islamic ads the latter group placed on New York City buses.
“She’s really trying to capitalize on the Islamophobia surrounding [ISIS], which has absolutely no connection to Muslims in America,’’ Zead Ramadan, a CAIR board member, told Al-Jazeera America of the ads. “They do not represent Islam, and most Muslims in the world will strongly, strongly, vehemently tell you that these guys do not represent us. Their actions are not Islamic.’’
Last month, Geller and the American Freedom Defense Initiative hosted a “Muhammad Art Exhibit and Contest’’ in Garland, Texas, displaying drawn images of the prophet Muhammad. Two gunmen opened fire outside the event, injuring one of the guards on duty. Both of the assailants were shot and killed by other guards at the event. Geller told Boston.com she has received threats in relation to her anti-Islamic work “many, many times.’’
She is often at the center of media discussions about hate speech and free speech, and she has led campaigns against the religion across the globe.
Geller was at the forefront of a fight against the construction of a mosque planned to be blocks away from Ground Zero in New York City. She deemed the place of worship a “victory mosque.’’ Plans for the Manhattan mosque were scrapped in 2010.
Geller has worked with right-wing Dutch politician Geert Wilders, who promotes banning the Koran and gave a speech at Geller’s group’s Muhammad cartoon contest in Texas.
Her groups have also spurred other anti-Islamic efforts, including armed biker protests at an Arizona Islamic community center. The Phoenix protests included caricatures of Muhammad and were made up of members of a motorcycle gang purportedly inspired by Geller’s Muhammad cartoon event.
Arizona news outletsreported that the group was met with a counter protest, where hundreds assembled with signs calling for love and inclusion. CAIR called the response “a really powerful image.’’
Four days later, Commissioner Evans said Geller was thought to be a Boston terror suspect’s target before he refocused on local law enforcement. Rahim bought three large military-style knives and told a colleague of his intentions to behead police officers, the U.S. Department of Justice said in an affidavit Wednesday.
“This plot only emphasizes how much we need to stand up to the jihadis,’’ Geller said.
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Photos: Police-involved shooting connected to terror probe
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