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A Geller/Spencer partisan’s smear of me
The anti-Auster obsessive “Awake” (a.k.a. Mike Slumber) delivers himself of a long comment at Jihad Watch denouncing me in highly personal terms for my criticism of Pamela Geller’s attack on the August 22 anti-mosque rally. A couple of commenters point out how silly is his argument. His main beef is that I did not explain Geller’s reason for her attack, and that this shows that I don’t care about the truth and am just out to get her. The truth is that I did not understand her reason for the attack. The attack seemed senseless to me, as it did to many other people, including several commenters at Jihad Watch, including also Herbert London, one of the August 22 speakers of whom Geller said, “I have no idea who these people are,” even though Mr. London, the president of the Hudson Institute, spoke at Geller’s own rally in June! In fact, I said at the end of my entry that since Geller’s attack on the rally didn’t make any sense, maybe she was mixing up the August 22 rally with some other ally that she thought was problematic. In other words, I was looking for an excuse for her behavior. That’s not what someone does who is trying to discredit a person at all costs. However, the problem remains that Geller dismissed an entire list of prominent speakers at the August 22 rally as “these people” whom she has no idea who they are, even though some of them, including London and Simon Deng, had spoken at Geller’s own previous rally.
You would think from the way Awake writes about me that I was on a campaign to discredit Geller and Robert Spencer’s work in raising awareness of the mosque issue and their work in general. That’s a disgusting smear, but exactly the kind of thing one would expect from Awake. While I have pointed out things I find objectionable about Geller’s approach, including her narcissism, and including her and Spencer’s brutal attitude of exclusion toward anyone who differs with them, I have repeatedly stated my admiration for her staunch activism. Making generous statements about a person with whom one has had difficulties is exactly the kind of behavior that is beyond the reach of Geller, Spencer, and their followers. They neither are capable of such generosity themselves, nor can they see it in others. I will continue in that generosity, even while I remain a non-person in their world. Also, the reason I did not attend the anti-mosque rally, which Awake also attacks me for, is that health issues make it difficult for me to spend a lot of time standing and walking.
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