While many conservatives have expressed disgust with extremist Pamela Geller’s anti-Islamic “Draw the prophet” stunt, there was nothing not to love about it if you’re Sean Hannity.
Geller’s deliberate provocation against Muslims got her just the kind of publicity she salivates for when two gunmen opened fire outside her event. Fortunately, they were shot and killed by the police before a horrific tragedy occurred.
Unfortunately for Geller, however, her plan to fashion herself as the Rosa Parks of Islamophobia has not gone over especially well with some key Fox News pundits and conservatives. But Hannity was so impressed, he all but demanded Geller be awarded a Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Referring to Geller’s many critics, Hannity said sanctimoniously, “You can’t draw a cartoon of the prophet Muhammad without expecting this violence? Is this how far we have sunk? That we’ve got to capitulate in this way?”
“Yes, that’s how far the left has sunk,” Geller agreed. “The idea that in this country, a country of freedom of speech, that they will not analyze, look at or even discuss the ideology behind the slaughter, the wholesale slaughter of those that will criticize, mock or insult Islam speaks volumes.”
Hannity didn’t mention that Geller’s extremism and her attacks on Islam go way beyond drawing a cartoon. From the Southern Poverty Law Center:
Through her website, Geller has promulgated some of the most bizarre conspiracy theories found on the extreme right, including claims that President Obama is the love child of Malcolm X, that Obama was once involved with a “crack whore,” that his birth certificate is a forgery, that his late mother posed nude for pornographic photos, and that he was a Muslim in his youth who never renounced Islam. She has described Obama as beholden to his “Islamic overlords” and said that he wants jihad to be victorious in America. In April 2011, Geller accused Obama of withholding evidence in the then-upcoming trial of accused Fort Hood mass murderer Major Nidal Malik Hasan.
Geller uses her website to publish her most revolting insults of Muslims: She posted (and later removed) a video implying that Muslims practiced bestiality with goats and a cartoon depicting the Muslim prophet Mohammad with a pig’s face (observant Muslims do not eat pork). Geller also has denied the genocide of Bosnian Muslims by Serbian forces in Srebrenica – calling it the “Srebrenica Genocide Myth,” even though the Serbian government itself issued a state apology for the massacre. She wrote, “Westerners are admitting to their role in something that didn’t happen, and digging their own graves.”
Hannity said admiringly to Geller, “You are steadfast in saying you speak out against radical Islamists, that are persecuting Christians, persecuting Jews, threatening to wipe Israel off the map and you’re standing up for the idea of - ”
“Of freedom of speech,” Geller said, completing his thought. “I will hold a thousand exhibits to stand in solidarity with the Charlie Hebdo editorial staff,” she later promised.
Never mind that Charlie Hebdo doesn’t want her standing with them.
Clearly, Geller can stand with Hannity, though. “I interpret your event as you are not gonna be dictated to what you can and cannot say,” he praised. “What you are not gonna allow after the Danish cartoon incident, Charlie Hebdo incident. You’re saying, ‘No, this is America and that we are not going to give in to this political correctness or this demand that we can’t draw a cartoon.’”
It wasn’t too long ago that Hannity tried to squelch the free speech of George W. Bush critics. He accused the left of "emboldening our enemies" and "undermin(ing) troop morale" merely for speaking out. Hannity kept it up even after three military commanders told him otherwise.
But Geller cried, “Bingo! We are not gonna abridge our freedoms so as not to offend savages.”
BFF Geller is scheduled to appear on Hannity again tonight.
Watch Hannity drool over her below, from last night’s show.
Ah, I forgot … haters are not particularly reknown for coherence and logic.