That Fox News is seen as a vehicle for Islamophobia is demonstrated in their willingness to legitimize the views of Pam Geller, the head of a rapidly anti-Islamic, SPLC designated hate group, whose views about Islam, and President Obama's supposed connection to it, go beyond merely hateful into the realm of the bizarre. Last Friday, Geller, who, BTW, justified the murders committed by Anders Breivik, appeared on Fox & Friends where she made the totally batshit crazy claim that President Obama supports Sharia law in America. On Saturday she was back with more batshit crazy claims that Obama is "sanctioning" Muslim rage. Pam Geller (Hofstra drop-out) as foreign policy expert? Really? Only in the strange, alternate reality of the "fair & balanced" Fox "News."
Roger Aisles personal attorney, litigator for the NY Catholic Arch-dioceses, Knight of Malta, and Fox & Friends host, Peter Johnson Jr, played video of Obama's public statement about the importance of tolerance. Famous "dick," Tucker Carlson then introduced "conservative blogger" Geller who, ironically, is noted for her intolerance. As a visual of her book, "Stop the Islamization of America" was shown, Carlson thanked her for appearing. In response to Carlson's question about what Obama means when he speaks against denigrating religion, Geller underscored why she has no credibility - except on Fox News. She went straight into crazy talk: "This is in adherence to the blasphemy laws under the Sharia. Under the Sharia you cannot criticize or offend Islam." She added that by "condemning the movie, he's condemning freedom of expression" and as such, "he's condemning freedom of speech." She then accused him of "sanctioning these murderous rages that these Muslim mobs have been going on."
She continued, without interruption, to speak about "First Amendment rights" which Fox and the FRC's Tony Perkins don't like when it comes to the SPLC. She said that "we should be condemning the brutal blasphemy laws under the Sharia." She referenced incidents in Pakistan which, she thinks, should be condemned. (So if Pakistan doesn't like our laws it can "condemn" them?) More crazy talk when she accused, without specifics, SCOTUS Judges Sotomayer and Kagan of not supporting free speech. And after complaining about how the mobs were motivated by Sharia, she contented that it wasn't about the movie but about policy.
At this point, after she had spoken, with no interruption, for about two minutes, Johnson asked her if she really believed that the president sanctioned the murder of an American diplomat. She responded that she's saying that Obama has "sanctioned the motive" and asked "what's the difference." To Carlson's question of Obama's motive, Geller claimed that the president is "Islamophiliac" (as opposed to her Islamophobia) and "sympathetic to Sharia." Johnson continued to try to get "clarity" on the "sanctioning" because - ready for it - "You've got a lot of credibility on a lot of other issues." He did seem a bit upset when he asserted that the audience will want to know what evidence she has. After noting that the Libyan attack was done by Al-Qaeda, she continued to say that Obama has "sanctioned the motive" of the riots and "that's not his place to encroach upon our freedoms" and "you cannot ask me to sacrifice my freedom so as not to offend savages and that is not his job. His job is to protect and defend the American Constitution and First Amendment." She claimed that the riots are not "anti-film" but anti-freedom."
WTF??? First, that anybody could ascribe any credibility to a certified hate mongerer like Pam Geller is beyond belief. Second, when President George W Bush called for tolerance, after 9-11, was he "adhering" to Sharia laws? Beyond that, there's nothing to say other than that Gnarls Barkley song, "I think you're crazy," is playing in my head.
Try the play “Corpus Christi”—where Christ and his disciples are portrayed as gay men in Texas.
Or the film, “The Last Temptation of Christ” wherein Christ—in an alternate reality married and (gasp) had sex with his wife (it just happened to be Mary Magdalene).
Or, what about Madonna’s video for “Like a Prayer?” The one which targeted racism through its use of burning crosses and Madonna praying at an icon of a Black Jesus (which comes to life).
And what about FoxNoise’s yearly whining about the “War on Christmas,” where a company can’t even ask its employees (who, incidentally, have NO “right” to work at the business) to wish customers “Happy Holidays?”
Now. Why do we not hear of a constant barrage of attacks by Muslims on depicitions of Christ or Christian churches*? (Yes, they do happen, but VERY infrequently.) Could it be because Muslims respect Jesus as a prophet? That could be it. (It was rather interesting that a Muslim leader in Lebanon condemned the US—through this inflammatory video—of trying to stir up strife because Muslims AND Christians in Lebanon.
*I’ll note that there is far more inter-Muslim sectarian strife than any conflicts with Christian communities but the Muslims are really no worse than Christians were in Europe just a few hundred years ago. (In what’s now Germany, there were literally dozens of towns and villages that were leveled because the citizens followed the “wrong” version of Christianity during the Thirty Years’ War.)
The bloodthirsty Gellar isn’t worried about other people’s safety, only her own freedom to offend others whom she considers savages. I think she fits the definition of savage fairly well. A credible savage.