What comes to mind when you hear the word “Islam”? ISIS? Anti-Semitism? Terrorist? These are a few of the many stereotypical and discriminatory words I have heard when discussing the Islamic world. As much condemnation we have heard about ISIS and other Islamic terrorist groups, are they really the ones deserving the utmost criticism? What about people like Pamela Geller who has identified all Muslims as “savages”?
Anti-Islamic blogger, Pamela Geller is President of The American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI) and Stop Islamization of America (SIOA). Notorious Geller has paid $100,000 for controversial anti-Islamic advertisements to appear on 100 buses and at the East 59th Street and the Columbus Circle MTA Stations. These ads include the following images.
This is not the first time that Geller has attempted to display her bigoted beliefs. In 2012, Geller also posted the following ad throughout New York and San Francisco on public transit.
Muslims have been a significant part of humanity throughout history and today. They have made the greatest achievements in medicine, science, art, and many more. Algebra was invented my Muslims. The greatest architectural structure was made by Muslims: The Taj Mahal. Muslims were the first to discover ophthalmology, anatomy, physiology, pathology, surgery, chemistry, and pharmaceuticals during the Islamic Renaissance. Today there are over one billion Muslims in the world and about fifty Muslim countries. Is it right to lump all the members of this faith as terrorists who want to destroy us?
Islam is also very close to Judaism as Muslims believe in Abraham, and Moses is named numerous times in the Quran. Like Jewish rituals, Muslims circumcise their young males and do not eat pork. Finally, Arabs themselves are Semitic like Jews, and the Arab culture and language is very similar to Jewish culture. It is ironic that Geller would identify all Muslims as Anti-Semitic when Arab-Muslims are themselves Semitic.
These advertisements claim that Muslims are anti-Semitic and compare them to Hitler. But in fact the opposite is true. For thousands of years, out of millions of Jew that have lived in Muslim countries, less than fifty thousand have been killed. However, in the same period, roughly the same number of Jews lived in Christian lands and perhaps as many as ten million were killed. From the Roman Empire to the Inquisition, all the way to the Holocaust, Jews have suffered persecution from Christians, while during the same time they lived in relative peace and prosperity in Muslim lands.
Yes, there are some terrorists who are Muslim, but there are also a lot of Christian terrorists. To label all Muslims as anti-Semitic and as savages, makes these advertisements misleading.
When asked to comment on this incident, Ms. Jackson who teaches the Southwest Asia and Islamic world class exclaims, “In fact, throughout much of the history of Islam, Jews have been treated quite well by the rulers of many Islamic states. The Abbasid Caliphate, which established an Islamic Empire from 750-1285 CE throughout Southwest Asia and Northern Africa, formally termed Jews as “People of the Book” since they followed similar Abrahamic traditions and scriptural history. Jews were allowed freedom of religion and relative tolerance in the Islamic Empire, in stark contrast to the treatment they received throughout much of Europe. It was Western Christians who brutally massacred the Jews of Jerusalem along with Muslims during the First Crusade in 1099 and most famously instigated the violent expulsion of the Jews from Spain in the Inquisition in 1492. Geller’s advertisements inexcusably misrepresent almost two billion people in a few broad incendiary and bigoted words with a potentially dangerous effect on the millions of NYC subway-users each day.”
Amie Sillah ’16 asks, “Regardless of religious background, we are a part of a country that recognizes freedom of speech, but has this gone too far?”
What do you think?