Nobody Asks Ayaan Hirsi Ali about Apostasy

I thought Atlas readers would get a charge out of the dhimmedia's take on our win for free speech and for apostates in fear of their lives. Of course, the media ran to Muslim Brotherhood-tied CAIR for comment, not to apostates. Every news report cited Hamas-tied CAIR; not one asked aposates or would-be apostates. Where are the comments from Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Ibn Warraq, Wafa Sultan?

Has Pamela Geller Stirred the Ground Zero Controversey?

The Huffington Post weighs in on the Ground Zero Mosque insult by ....blaming me. How original.

Of course, front and center, is Hamas linked, co-conspirator, Muslim Brotherhood front CAIR lying, smearing opining. Why didn't the Puff Ho ask Bin Laden's take as well?

Pamela Geller, 'Queen Of Muslim Bashers,' At Center Of N.Y. 'Mosque' Debate.

According to a recent Time magazine poll, 61 percent of Americans now oppose building Park51. Geller says the notion that she has single-handedly instigated the opposition is absurd.

"I think it's grossly unfair and condescending to the American people, as if they are lemmings and can't think and feel for themselves," she said in an interview. "I don't have that kind of influence."

Before she got into blogging and advocacy, Geller spent nearly a decade at the New York Daily News, starting as a financial analyst and making stops in the advertising and marketing departments. Later, Geller was associate publisher of The New York Observer for five years, she said.

Now, even Muslim groups reluctantly acknowledge Geller is front and
center in the mosque debate. "People say don't give her too much credit, she's a fringe character," said Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations. "But she is a fringe character who every day is on CNN, Fox, The Washington Post, and The New York Times. She is the driving force behind the Islamic center campaign."

Some media experts doubt Geller's influence, though, and question why reporters have given her controversial views a platform. Postings on "Atlas Shrugs" have included a video suggesting Muslims have sex with goats, a doctored picture showing President Obama urinating on an American flag, and a fake image of new Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan in Nazi garb.

Geller has also accused Obama of anti-Semitism, said that he does the bidding of "Islamic overlords," and posted an essay suggesting that the president is the love child of Malcolm X.

Geller said not everything on her website should be taken seriously. She jokingly called CNN the "Crescent News Network," after it criticized her views, and her author photo shows Geller's head on Superman's body. "The blog is my living room, my kitchen, when I'm talking to my friends," Geller said.

Muslims, however, are not amused.

"I would say that she is the queen of the Muslim bashers," said Hooper. "I see her rise and the rise of these anti-Islam hate groups going hand in hand."

Diane Winston, an expert on religion and the media at the University of Southern California, said a perfect storm of circumstances has fueled opposition to Park51 -- but the media have settled for the simplistic narrative that one woman is behind it all.

"Pamela Geller is an attractive woman and she speaks simply and you
can follow her and she gives good sound bites," Winston said. "She has definitely had an impact, but her perspective wouldn't be widely know if the mainstream media hadn't picked up on it."

Thirty years ago, before the advent of the Internet and cable news, it's doubtful the mainstream media would have given Geller any attention, Winston said. "Now, in its rush to be relevant and get an audience, the mainstream media basically whores itself out to the right wing."

Geller's groups, Stop the Islamization of America, and the Freedom Defense Initiative, have bought ads critical of Islam on public buses in New York, Miami, and San Francisco. After transit officials in Detroit refused to post the ads, Geller sued, and the litigation continues.
Geller says the ads, which carry messages like, "Fatwa on Your Head?" and "Leaving Islam?" are not intended to be anti-Muslim, but offer safe haven for people considering conversion. Geller would not say how many people have asked for the resources offered in the ads.

Geller's latest ad, which will run on buses and trains in New York, shows a plane about to crash into the World Trade Center and a rendering of the proposed Islamic cultural center.

"I have nothing against Muslims. I love people," she said. "But I am opposed to ideology that inspires violence."

Muslims who don't Condemn Apostates to Death Are Tiny Minority

It's important to point out that RT TV had me debate an Ahmadiyya Muslim. They are regarded as apostates in Pakistan and are brutally repressed there.

Orthodox Muslims consider both Ahmadi movements to be heretics and non-Muslims for a number of reasons, chief among them being the question of finality of prophethood,[79] since they believe members of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community do not regard the Islamic prophet Muhammad as the last prophet.[80] The Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement does not subscribe to this belief; its members, in fact, deny the prophethood of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad.[81] Ahmadis claim that this is a result of misinterpreting Mirza Ghulam Ahmad's statements referring to his coming “in the spirit of Muhammed”,[81][82] (similar to John the Baptist coming in the spirit and power of Elijah).[83][84]

Both Ahmadi movements are considered non-Muslims by the Pakistan government, and have this fact recorded on their travel documents. By contrast, Ahmadi citizens from Western countries and other moderate Muslim nations perform Hajj and Umra, as the Saudi government is not made aware that they are Ahmadis when they apply for a visa. A court decision has upheld the right of Ahmadiyyas to identify themselves as Muslims in India.[86]

Ahmadi Muslims believe Ghulam Ahmad to be the Mahdi and promised Messiah.

Bangladesh
In Bangladesh, fundamentalist Islamic groups have demanded that Ahmadiyyas be “officially” declared to be kafirs (infidels). Ahmadiyyas have become a persecuted group, targeted via protests and acts of violence.[72] According to Amnesty International, followers have been subject to “house arrest”, and several have been killed. In late 2003, several large violent marches, led by Moulana Moahmud Hossain Mumtazi, were directed to occupy an Ahmadiyya mosque. In 2004, all Ahmadiyya publications were banned.[73]
Indonesia

In 2008, many Muslims in Indonesia protested against the Ahmadiyya movement. With violence and large demonstrations, these religious conservatives put pressure on the government to monitor, and harass the Ahmadiyya community in Indonesia.[74][75] In June 2008, a law was passed to curtail “proselytizing” by Ahmadiyya members.[76] An Ahmadiyya mosque was burned.[77] Human rights groups objected to the restrictions on religious freedom.[78]
Public opinion in Indonesia is split in three ways on how Ahmadiyya should be treated: (a) some hold it should be banned outright on the basis that it is a heretical and deviant sect that is not listed as an officially recognised religion in Indonesia; (b) others hold that it should not be banned because of the freedom of religion article in the Constitution, but also should not be allowed to proselytise under the banner of "Islam" on the basis that this is misleading; (c) still others hold that it should be free to do and say as it pleases based on the Constitutional right to freedom of religion. (more here)

Posted by Pamela Geller on Tuesday, August 03, 2010 at 12:09 AM in SIOA "Leaving Islam" Bus Campaign | Permalink ShareThis

Reblog (0) | | Digg This | Save to

Freedom of Speech Affirmed in Detroit Courtroom

I thought Atlas readers might enjoy the following observations from self described "Grateful "Girl-illas" Linda and Sue, who were in the courtroom when I testified Tuesday. I would call them "great-ful," I am grateful for their activism and patriotism:

SMART is as SMART Does .............

We were proud to be at the hearing in support of Pamela and her impressive legal team, and in support of the bedrock freedoms they are defending for all of us. We in Detroit are so grateful that Pamela, Robert Muise and David Yerushalmi invested so much of themselves into fighting to preserve our First Amendment rights, curiously being challenged by the SMART transit authority, while other major cities are allowing the identical ads to run on their buses.

Given what is at stake and the important legal ramifications of this case, we were appalled that none of the local news outlets saw fit to assign any of their reporters to cover the hearing, especially since they were all still at the same federal building following former Detroit Mayor Kilpatrick’s arraignment.

Judge Hood asked thoughtful follow-up questions that kept the trial focused on the important issues of the hearing. We were disheartened, however, that the (not so) SMART attorney stooped to launching a personal ad hominem attack against Pamela and the full scope of her work, attempting to discredit her while telling the judge that he hadn’t even bothered to check out the organizations/individuals behind the two other very controversial bus ad campaigns (an anti-abortion ad and a pro-atheism ad) cited often in the hearing as relevant precedents. Though Notso SMART attorney tried to put Pamela herself on trial, her unflappable equanimity and impassioned conviction to the sanctity of religious liberties and free expression carried the day.

After listening to the testimony of Ms. Gibbons from SMART who declared that there was nothing in the content of the Leaving Islam? ads that could be construed as political in nature, we are baffled as to what could have happened between the time SMART initially accepted the ads/ payment and SMART’s subsequent decision to reject the ads. We can’t help but wonder if any outside organizations or influences brought pressure to bear on SMART to deny the SIOA ad campaign. Ms. Gibbon’s only justification for SMART’s refusal to run the bus ads was her reference to a single unfavorable opinion piece originally published by the Miami Herald. It was our sense that the SMART team failed to establish how the content of the ad violated their own policies and practices. Upon requested questioning, Ms. Gibbons could not clearly identify what in the ad met their criteria for political speech.

In his closing arguments, Robert Muise eloquently made the case that free speech cannot be denied based upon the “whims” or “capriciousness” of government officials. We couldn’t agree more that a dangerous precedent would be set and a slippery slope traversed if government officials begin to impose “viewpoint-based” restrictions on the exercise of our enshrined First Amendment rights.

Atlas Shrugs

Apostasy from Islam

Here is apostasy from Reliance of the Traveller:

• *2*Chapter O8.0: Apostasy from Islam (Ridda) @(O: Leaving Islam is the ugliest form of unbelief (kufr) and the worst. It may come about through sarcasm, as when someone is told, ``Trim your nails, it is sunna,'' and he replies, ``I would not do it even if it were,'' as opposed to when some circumstance exists which exonerates him of having committed apostasy, such as when his tongue runs away with him, or when he is quoting someone, or says it out of fear.) @O8.1
• When a person who has reached puberty and is sane voluntarily apostatizes from Islam, he deserves to be killed. @O8.2
• In such a case, it is obligatory for the caliph (A: or his representive) to ask him to repent and return to Islam. If he does, it is accepted from him, but if he refuses, he is immediately killed. @O8.3
• If he is a freeman, no one besides the caliph or his representative may kill him. If someone else kills him, the killer is disciplined (def: o17) (O: for arrogating the caliph's prerogative and encroaching upon his rights, as this is one of his duties). @O8.4
• There is no indemnity for killing an apostate (O: or any expiation, since it is killing someone who deserves to die). @O8.5
• If he apostatizes from Islam and returns several times, it (O: i.e. his return to Islam, which occurs when he states the two Testifications of Faith (def: o8.7(12) ) ) is accepted from him, though he is disciplined (o17). @O8.6
• (A: If a spouse in a consummated marriage apostatizes from Islam, the couple are separated for a waiting period consisting of three intervals between menstruations. If the spouse returns to Islam before the waiting period ends, the marriage is not annulled but is considered to have continued the whole time (dis: m7.4).

Leaving Islam?

After doing much research I decided that I can no longer practice nor advocate the religion of Islam. I am not sure what path to take but I know that I can no longer follow this path. God bless former Muslims such as Walid Shoebat, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Nonie Darwish, Rifqa Bary and many others for inspiring me with hope and standing up for what they believe in. They have showed me that I am not alone in my decision. I know that I may have many enemies and I also know that there will be many people who will be disappointed in my decision to leave Islam. I am prepared to deal with the consequences all in the name of truth and justice.

By Faisal Munir

Leaving Islam?

The headline is deceiving: "'Leaving Islam?' bus adverts draw anger in NYC." The only anger they drew was from unindicted co-conspirator, Hamas-linked, Muslim Brotherhood front CAIR. The rest of the article reads well.

They only cite Islamic supremacist group CAIR. When did journalism die? Why haven't they spoken to apostates? Opposing these ads is tantamount to advocating death to apostates.

We are human rights advocates dedicated to freedom of speech, religious freedom, freedom of conscience and equal rights for all. Period. We are anti-sharia (Islamic) law.

'Leaving Islam?' bus adverts draw anger in NYC Telegraph UK hat tip David

Advertisements on New York buses offering help to Muslims who wish to leave Islam have been denounced as a "smoke screen for anti-Muslim bigotry".

The advertisements - paid for by conservative activists - ask readers: "Leaving Islam? Fatwa on your head? Is your family threatening you?" The adverts point to a website called RefugefromIslam.com.

Pamela Geller, who leads an organisation called Stop Islamization of America, said the adverts were designed to help provide resources for Muslims who were fearful of leaving the faith. She said the adverts, which will run on 30 city buses for a month, cost $8,000 (£5,500), which was contributed by the readers of her blog, Atlas Shrugs, and other websites.

"It's not offensive to Muslims, it's religious freedom," she said. "It's not targeted at practising Muslims. It doesn't say 'leave,' it says 'leaving' with a question mark."

Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials said Ms Geller's advert had been reviewed and did not violate the agency's guidelines.

But Faiza Ali, of the New York chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said the ads were based on a false premise that people face coercion to remain with Islam. She said Muslims believe faith that is forced is not true belief.

"Geller is free to say what she likes just as concerned community members are free to criticize her motives," Ali said.

Ms Geller has a history of speaking out against Muslims, and the ads are "a smoke screen to advance her long-standing history of anti-Muslim bigotry," Ms Ali said.

Similar posters have run on buses in Miami, and she said adverts were planned for other US cities.

Ms Geller said she had "no problem" with Muslims, but was working to "maintain the separation of mosque and state". She is also among those speaking out against the building of a mosque and cultural centre near Ground Zero in New York.

Pamela Geller, Atlas Shrugs