Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer, via their organization the American Freedom Defense Initiative, are soliciting funds for a new round of anti-Muslim advertisements.
This particular one reads: “Yesterday’s Moderate is Today’s Headline” with the sub-caption “It’s not Islamophobia, it’s Islamorealism.” The ad features a before-and-after picture of a former British hip-hop artist who, according to right-wing news outlets, is suspected to the ISIS member featured in the beheading videos. The images show the individual before he joined the extremist group and after he enlisted and became a “devout” Muslim. “Devout” is a word Geller and Spencer like to throw around to mean “violent extremist.”
On the fundraising page, Geller says the goal for the campaign is to highlight the “uselessness of the ‘moderate/extremist’ distinction.” Of course, many, including author Nathan Lean, have highlighted the problem of using the term “moderate,” but such arguments are of no use to those intent on bigotry.
As always, the proposed ads aim to stoke populist fears that all Muslims in America have extremist ties and will one day turn on the country.
Geller also uses her latest ad to justify and call for the continuation of controversial Muslim surveillance programs. This includes the one utilized by the New York Police Department, which recently it disbanded the surveillance unit, however, other questionable tactics still remain in place.
“[T]he NYPD and other law enforcement agencies,” she writes, “are winding down surveillance programs in Muslim communities, under pressure from Islamic supremacist groups with ties to Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood. This is unconscionable, and endangers Americans.”
Geller says her latest ads are expected to first run in New York City, but say she hopes to later export them nationwide.