Pamela Geller's Organization and its "Freedom of Conscience"

Armed with a shopping bag and a swath of lipstick,
Pamela Geller is ready to fight for "freedom of conscience"

I wrote a long post on Pamela Geller's views on Islam, based on her recently published book Freedom or Submission: On the Dangers of Islamic Extremism and American Complacency.

One of the things I pointed out, from the the chapter headings of her book, was the chapter America's Choice: Freedom or Submission. I wrote:

The choice is not between freedom and loss of freedom, although Islam will curtail our freedom, but a choice between a Western, Christian land or a land that becomes a dhimmie to Islam.

In a recent posting at her site Atlas Shrugs, Geller wrote the following about her organization American Freedom Defense Initiative:

AFDI stands for:

The freedom of speech – as opposed to Islamic prohibitions of "blasphemy" and "slander," which are used effectively to quash honest discussion of jihad and Islamic supremacism.

The freedom of conscience – as opposed to the Islamic death penalty for apostasy

The equality of rights of all people before the law – as opposed to Sharia's institutionalized discrimination against women and non-Muslims.

I've gone in detail in my last posting about the problem with words like "supremacism" and "extremists" when discussing Muslims and Islam (these "conditions" don't exist, Muslims are Muslim, and they believe in Islam), but here is Geller, once again refuses to add more weight to the religious component.

I have written that Geller is Jewish, but I didn't want to write that Geller is a secular Jew, who uses her Jewishness as an ethnic and cultural definition, rather than a religious one.

Now, I can concluded that she is an atheist, and that is why she is unable to take seriously the religious element of our existential war.

In her final line for "AFDI stands for" she writes:

The freedom of conscience – as opposed to the Islamic death penalty for apostasy

She clearly notes the religious aspect of death for non-Muslims, or apostates, in Islamic law (or sharia), yet her counter-punch to prevent this, and to fight against it, is "freedom of conscience."

Of course, what she means is "freedom of religion" or the freedom to believe in whatever one wishes.

In other words, Muslims can have the strong armor of their religion through which they pursue, as mandated and directed by their god, to spread their message, whereas the rest of the world, and of course specifically the Western Christian world and America can only rely on "freedom of conscience."

It is very hard to do good. The good we do may come through bitter, and deadly battles. The good we do may need to be manifested through war. Our "freedom of conscience" forces us to be good without the necessary steely backbone of our conviction that we are right to do this good. And that kind of backbone only comes through religion, as the Muslims well know. And that kind of "goodness" can capitulate when faced with the hard decisions.

As I've written, our counter-punch to Islam is Christianity. Not "freedom of conscience." That is what will give us the steely backbone. Without it, we will vacillate between sword rattling and, more often, appeasement and retreat.

Pamela Geller's photo on the poster for her Toronto appearance at the Jewish Defense League of Canada:


All in the name of love
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted By: Kidist P. Asrat
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------