In an interview with ultraconservative radio host Janet Mefferd earlier this week, anti-Muslim activist Pamela Geller claimed that Muslims in the “neighborhoods,” “workplaces” and “public squares” of the United States have initiated “a war on the First Amendment,” implying that this could eventually force “free men” to resort to violence against Muslims.
Mefferd prompted these remarks by asking Geller what her greatest concern was with regard to the “advancement of Islamic supremacy” in the United States.
“I would say above all it is the war on the First Amendment,” Geller said. “Because without freedom of speech, free men have to resort to violence. Everything else you’re seeing—the ‘mosque-ing’ of the neighborhood, the ‘mosque-ing’ of the workplace, the ‘mosque-ing’ of the public square—comes as the result of what happens in this war” against the First Amendment.
Geller’s comments appear to be in response to a recent court ruling that deemed it unlawful for a New Jersey township to prevent a local Islamic society from building a mosque on their own property. Geller was incensed by the decision, and mischaracterized the ruling as an infringement on anti-Muslim activists’ freedom of speech. “You have village people, city dwellers, who oppose” mosque construction and “are trying to fight it,” she said, but “you have the DOJ under Obama suing these towns” who “can’t afford to go up against the government.”
