Bartholomew's Notes

As has been widely reported, Pamela Geller has announced a new book, Stop the Islamization of America: A Practical Guide to the Resistance. A press release has some endorsements:

“The First Amendment’s free-speech guarantee is central to America’s character and our fundamental liberties.  Equally important, and stemming from the same philosophical roots, is the Amendment’s twinned protection of religious freedom and its prohibition of establishing religion.  These pillars of liberty are under attack around the world, and even here in America.  If you want to preserve the Constitution, read this book.” — John R. Bolton, former US Ambassador to the United Nations, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, and author of Surrender Is Not an Option: Defending America at the United Nations.

“Americans are searching for ways to get involved in stopping the encroachment of Shariah law on the US Constitution and the takeover of our nation by the Muslim Brotherhood. Pamela Geller provides practical steps for every American to get involved in stopping the attack on our nation by the forces of evil. I hope that every concerned American reads and heads this book.” — Lt. General Jerry Boykin, former United States Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence, and author of Never Surrender: A Soldier’s Journey to The Crossroads of Faith and Freedom.

The two quotes illustrate Geller’s appeal across the right: one can’t imagine the hard-boiled Bolton having much time for Boykin’s brand of neo-Pentecostalism, which revolves around revelations given to prophets such as Jim Bakker and Rick Joyner, along with using the Bible to discern signs of the End Times in current events. It is, though, a tricky balancing act: in March 2010 Geller and her sidekick Robert Spencer had to scramble after their links with the Christian Action Network caused embarrassment for Geert Wilders, due to CAN’s anti-gay views.

The new book’s title, of course, references Geller’s “Stop the Islamization of America” organisation, which she took over from DL Adams and Kendra Adams in April 2010 at the request of Anders Gravers and Stephen Gash of Stop Islamisation of Europe. SIOA’s website was recently scrubbed of all content and access to cached versions has been blocked, but it is known to be controlled by the American Freedom Defense Initiative, which was set up by Geller, Spencer, Gravers,  a certain Richard Davis, and John Joseph Jay.

Jay is also a member of SIOA’s board, and he came to wider attention in August last year after several sanguinary comments came to light, including the belief that “if we are to excise the ruling class, it will be with violence.” Spencer responded with bluster about  “leftists” and “misrepresentation”, but he was not able to explain away Jay’s obviously violent rhetoric. While I’m not in favour of raising the spectre of Breivik whenever anti-Islamic views are expressed, Jay’s ramblings and Spencer’s rationalisations for them are particularly distasteful to ponder post-Utoya.

Geller’s previous book – an anti-Obama screed entitled The Post-American Presidency – was published by Simon & Schuster’s conservative imprint Threshold, and came with a foreword by Bolton. Stop the Islamization of America has been published by WorldNetDaily Books, which is perhaps best-known for Jerome Corsi’s birther conspiracy tome Where’s the Birth Certificate?

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