‘Together We Are An Army’: The BLP Interview with Pamela Geller
Seth Segal
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Activist writer Pamela Geller surprised the Washington establishment a few months ago when it was reported that she speaks with President Donald Trump’s national security adviser John Bolton about the Islamic terrorism threat. The mainstream media has been critical of Geller, whom they characterize as an extremist. But a photograph from 2009 confirmed Geller’s longstanding ties to Bolton.
As the editor in chief of the Geller Report, an administrator of the Tea Party strategy group, and a speaker, Geller has carved out a distinctive brand in American intellectual life. We caught up with Pamela Geller to discuss her life and work.
1.Describe your political journey?
I was the unlikeliest of candidates to become a human rights activist. I was the quintessential New York City girl. My career was everything. I was the associate publisher of the New York Observer, and before that the Director of Agency Relations at the New York Daily News. But I had never been terribly political. But 9/11 stopped me dead. Nothing was ever the same.Who had attacked my country? I felt guilty that I didn’t know the answer to the question, who had done this? I began to study the work of Islamic scholars such as Bat Ye’or and Ibn Warraq. My journey began there. I began my website to comment on the news of the day, and my activism flowed from that.
2.Who’s your favorite political figure?
Donald Trump and John Bolton are in a tie right now.
3.What brought about your awareness of the Islamist threat to the homeland?
The 9/11 attack. Before that, my overarching sense of life had been my deep, abiding love of America. America is not the only good thing in the world, but it is the best thing in the world. I was wildly proud of her, and proud to be American, a Jewish American. At no time in history were Jews as free to be outwardly Jewish and proud. No country was better to its Jews. After the attack, I determined to do what I could in America’s defense.
4.What’s the platform of your organization?
The defense of the freedom of speech, the freedom of conscience, the equality of rights of all people before the law, and individual rights.
5. Why do you think the mainstream media continues to give a platform to an organization like CAIR?
They are either bought and paid for, or convinced that to oppose jihad terror and sharia oppression is “racism,” or both.
6. What’s your view on how President Trump has handled Islamic Immigration and the refugee program?
He is doing what he can to protect the United States of America by keeping jihadis out. That he would get any opposition to this, much less the Democrats’ full-throated, self-righteous opposition, is unconscionable.
7. What can be done to further the cause of counter Jihad?
One person can make a difference. That means YOU. You must be unafraid. You must embrace the smear, defamation and libel. You must get on social media and shout. You must share the websites, articles, and activism on your pages, social media channels and email contacts.You must go to protests, events, conferences and networks – meet people, network, start a group, invite us to speak. Do something.So much depends upon one person deciding to act. That could be you. That must be you. I am one person. So are you. Together we are an army.
8. Your demonstration against the building Ground Zero Mosque helped to prevent it from being built. Do you have any future rallies planned?
I plan such events as the occasion arises and circumstances warrant.
Thank you very much for your time.
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