Pamela Geller was not ready to give up after her “Draw Muhammed” contest in Texas turned ugly. When two jihadists showed up at the event, intending to kill people inside, they only wounded one security guard and were killed in the firefight. Since then, Pamela Geller has been on a jihad of her own to challenge those who would silence her in the name of their religion.
Pamela Geller submitted an ad campaign featuring the winning drawing from that contest to be displayed at bus and train stops around Washington, DC. (See that drawing below.)
Rather than allow that campaign to run, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority banned all “issue-oriented” ads from being displayed on Metro property for the rest of the year. The said they would take up the subject later in the year, but for now they have shut the problem down.
“In the coming months, Metro will fully consider the impact that issue-related advertisements have on the community by gathering input from riders, local community groups and advocates,” Metro spokesman Michael Tolbert said.
Pamela Geller responded to that decision by saying, “The nation’s capital banned free speech for fear of offending the very savages we are fighting here and across the world.”
US News and World Report on Washington DC Transit Ban: The nation’s capital banned free speech for fear of off… http://t.co/J6ewQbUwSN
— Pamela Geller (@PamelaGeller) May 28, 2015
Pamela Geller says her reason behind trying to get a cartoon of Muhammed seen is clear. In a nutshell:
We as Americans have a right to free speech, which means we can draw pictures of Muhammed or anyone else. To refuse to do so or to refuse to display them because we fear reprisals from jihadists means we are cowering before those who would impose Sharia law on us by force.
“Drawing Muhammad is not illegal under American law, but only under Islamic law,” Geller has said. “Violence that arises over the cartoons is solely the responsibility of the Islamic jihadists who perpetrate it. Either America will stand now against attempts to suppress the freedom of speech by violence, or will submit and give the violent the signal that we can be silenced by threats and murder.”
CNN host Chris Cuomo told Pamela Geller that drawing images of Muhammed is much like using the using the N-word. It is allowed, sure. But it is offensive.
Pamela Geller strongly disagreed. And after her CNN appearance, she called BS on Cuomo’s on-camera comments.
“They pretend it’s about not offending when at it’s all about fear,” she wrote. “Cuomo told me off camera that it is CNN policy not to run the cartoons because of fear of violence. In a word, submission. The N-word is just an intentional slur with no positive message – our ad stands for free speech in the face of violence and thuggery.”
The N word is an intentional slur with no positive message,our ad stands for free speech in the face of jihad terror https://t.co/0vxPSdLWXO
— Pamela Geller (@PamelaGeller) May 28, 2015
I'll ride that@PamelaGeller Bus & Train Ads for #freespeech #muhammedcartoon @Deanofcomedy http://t.co/dyq9SbifBN pic.twitter.com/e6DZDVJbCq
— Feisty Floridian (@peddoc63) May 26, 2015