An Exchange

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Longtime TPM Reader BF respond to my post on Geert Wilders and I reply back …

“By all means, if you were a professional Mohammad cartoonist before this started, stay strong, keep drawing and do not be intimidated by these violent extremists.”

What if you’re a novelist like Salman Rushdie? Or a filmmaker like Theo Van Gogh? Or a schoolgirl like Malala Yousafzai? Or bloggers like Washiqur Rahman or Avijit Roy?

Pamela Geller is an attention whore and a loon. Agreed. But suggesting that this is an issue of Mohammad cartoons rather than of a broader pattern of Islamist intimidation of free speech is problematic.

As a practical matter, I am not sure there is a better option than a systematic campaign of deliberately offensive speech to demonstrate, without equivocation, that we will not be intimidated.

Call me crazy, but I say, put a Mohammed cartoon in every newspaper, on every billboard, in every TV show and movie, until it becomes absolutely and unambiguously clear that violence will not prevent it and the ONLY option is for even radical Muslims to learn they have no choice but to live with it.

If I may suggest an analogy to frame this differently — gay rights. One response to anti-gay violence was traditionally to warn gays against “deliberate provocation.” “Don’t rub it in people’s faces.” “Stay in the closet.” Yet, I think the whole “queer” movement — “We’re here, we’re queer, get used to it” — was beneficial. Yet, for years, people considered queer activists, with their in-your-face attitude as a counter-productive attention-whores. The mainstream condemned Larry Kramer, for instance. He was even reviled in “moderate” gay circles. We now consider him a visionary. A provocateur, yes. But undoubtedly one of the most important figures in the fight for gay rights.

I don’t know. Frankly, I hate to defend Geller. And yet, and yet, and yet… Islamist attacked on authors, cartoonists, filmmakers and politicians, cannot be tolerated, cannot be accepted. They are much too common. They must be confronted.

From TPM Writer JM

Look at what I said about if you’re a Mohammad cartoonist and realize what I meant. No one should be intimidated. And frankly I don’t think many people do feel intimidated here as opposed to in Europe. But what about those people? That’s a real thing. And that’s my point. Let’s distinguish between things that are real – trampling of free expression and our values – as opposed to a toxic and bigoted clown like Geller. Are we really afraid that without Geller not enough things will happen to offend Muslim radicals that they won’t get the point?

I dashed this off on my iPhone while I was out grabbing a snack. So I wrote quickly. But here is my point. I genuinely don’t care what Geller does or says. What I do care about is preserving my right to identify her as a clown and a bigot and not pretend that she’s some sort of free speech advocate or anything else but a toxic moron. She is not some intemperate player on the side of a righteous cause. She’s just a clown – mainly motivated by hate and ego hoping to pull extremists out of the woodwork for her own doofus glory.

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