Sow the wind of hatred, reap the whirlwind of retribution and bloodshed

On Sunday, two attackers with assault-style rifles reportedly opened fire at an event where people were drawing cartoons of the prophet Muhammad, which is prohibited by Islam. The event was sponsored by the American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI), which was co-founded by Geller. Both AFDI and Geller’s Stop Islamization of America (SIOA) organization have been labeled hate groups by the SPLC. Potok told CNN on Monday that the shooting would “give a little boost to Geller and her friends.”…. “Absolutely nothing justifies this attack,” he pointed out. “That said, Pam Geller, to describe her as anti-Islam and her groups as anti-Islam barely covers it.”…. Potok noted that he and the SPLC were both defenders of the First Amendment, “but Pam Geller and her organization is a hate group today just as they were day before yesterday.”

Whatever your feelings about the incident in Garland, TX, may be, there seems little doubt but that Pamela Geller, AFDI, and SIOA got exactly what they wanted. It would be difficult to credibly claim that Geller was merely attempting to spur public debate and discussion. Clearly, the intent was to inflame passions; why else would the cartoon contest have been held the hotbed of anti-Muslim hatred that is Garland? Geller was without a doubt willing to risk violent confrontation in an effort to garner attention and financial support for her “cause”…if abject hatred in the service of evil can even can called that.

To say that Geller has blood on her hands wouldn’t begin to do justice to the depths of her depravity and irrational hatred of all things Muslim. That she seems to feel no responsibility for creating an atmosphere in which violence was a virtual certainty speaks to someone with a hardened heart and a soul beyond repair. That someone could be so consumed by hatred- of a religion and of the people who practice it- is something I can’t wrap my head around. The idea of living a life so thoroughly and completely informed and defined by burning, passionate hatred is not a life I could imagine seeing any appeal in. Geller, however, has made her hatred her career and by all indications is doing quite well for herself. The truly sad thing is that I suspect she sees the incident in Garland as validation of and justification for everything she hates. She can point to it and, in her mind at least, justify her crusade against Islam and Muslims- ‘cuz they’re violent savages bent on destruction and murder, don’tchaknow?

That she could with no sense of irony compare herself to Rosa Parks only serves to demonstrates the depths of her delusions, what a friend of mine used to call “delusions of adequacy.” Pamela Geller is her own self-contained hate group, and the hate speech she engages in is something that should rightfully offend anyone with any sense of decency and humanity…two things she appears to lack any discernible trace of.

It’s too bad she can’t be tried for conspiracy to murder, because while she didn’t pull the trigger, she created the atmosphere which made violence a virtual certainty. I try very hard not to hate people (certainly a challenge in her case), but I do find myself feeling sorry for such a pathetic excuse for humanity. Fanning the flames of such powerful and passionate hatred isn’t something that makes for a happy person. That said, she’s made her choice, and if nothing else she should serve as a cautionary tale.

Love really does defeat hate…though Pamela Geller is so far gone I doubt she remembers what love is.