Why do we Battle Evil?

Over the past couple of months, a lot of readers of my website, AtlasShrugs, have been asking me why I go on these consistently belligerent TV shows to discuss Islam, knowing that:

* It is going to be a hostile environment;
* I will be debating liars, deceivers and Islamic supremacists;
* I will be defamed, smeared and slandered;
* The playing field will be grossly unfair;
* I will be interrupted, cut off, and rebuked;
* I will be given much less time than my opponent.

I will tell you why. It is an opportunity, however compromised. Voices like mine, Robert Spencer’s, Wafa Sultan’s and Ibn Warraq’s are never heard in the mainstream media. The truth is hidden from the masses, and the media’s criminal negligence is cloaked in good intentions. Well, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

This is guerrilla warfare in the information battlespace, in the war of ideas. These media opportunities were hardly perfect, but they were something. Why make perfect the enemy of the good? They were better than the traditional blackout on our freedom- defense initiatives. It was a shot, and I was taking it and running with it, no matter how disgusting it all was.

From the media’s perspective, the Ground Zero mosque was an historical phenomenon. For the first time, a major news story became the most important national and international news story without the media. Think about that. Unlike the fringe pastor in Florida, who tweeted a Qur’an threat and the media descended like locusts to a Florida backwater to create a news story, a narrative, the Ground Zero mosque was not shaped by the media, not covered by the media — not at first anyway.

The media scrambled to cover the story. They had no narrative, at first. They would put me on and let me speak. Of course, they always had some Islamic supremacist liar on to destroy me, but they never could. And despite all the handicaps, I had the opportunity to present America with concretes on Islam. FOX had me on with Hamas-linked Nihad Awad of CAIR and CNN had Ahmed Soliman debate me. I got in the ring with Ibrahim Ramey on CNN, and again with Ramey on the CBC. Palestinian hip hopper Will Youmans spewed pure fiction in our debate, and I also debated with Robert Salaam on RLTV, hostile talking heads, and a nasty Bill O’Reilly (who had to have me on to refute a virtual fatwa, an incitement to violence that Nihad Awad of CAIR had issued on my head on his show the night before). Joy Behar took her best shot (and missed), joined by Daisy Khan and Roy Sekoff, founding editor of the Huffington Post. Three against me, but still not skewed enough for them. There were lefty apologists like Nicole Neroulias, faculty member of the Columbia School of Journalism, who got into the ring with me on FOX and Friends.

I faced off against David Lane and Michael Gross, ACLU and civil rights lawyers who took their shots at me on Hannity. And there were classic moments with Fibrahim Hooper of CAIR. CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 show went so far as to do a whole segment accusing me of ginning up the Ground Zero mosque controversy, saying that if it hadn’t been for Geller, there would have been no issue (talk about condescending to the American people). There were skirmishes with Safaa Zarzour, Secretary General of the Muslim Brotherhood front The Islamic Society of North America, and Hussam Ayloush of the Muslim Brotherhood front CAIR-Los Angeles. Not to mention a brisk brush with Michael Ghouse. Across the pond I debated Shahed Amanullah on the BBC. Geraldo did a hit piece on me. I took on Malik Shabazz of the new Black Panthers. I went head-to-head with whoremonger Bob Beckel and hate sponsor CAIR-Chicago’s Ahmed Rehab.

Pamela Geller