Pam Geller Rebuffs Norquist?s Call For The Right To ?Knock Down? Islamophobia: ?Grover?s Got To Go?
Posted in Main Blog (All Posts) on February 15th, 2011 5:37 am by HL
Pam Geller Rebuffs Norquist?s Call For The Right To ?Knock Down? Islamophobia: ?Grover?s Got To Go?
Leading up to last week’s Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, DC, some on the right — led by Frank Gaffney — dredged up their anti-Muslim, Islamophobic fury, claiming that leaders of the American Conservative Union — which puts on CPAC — had been infiltrated by the Muslim Brotherhood and other “radical Islamists.” Gaffney told ThinkProgress in an interview at CPAC that ACU board members Grover Norquist and Suhail Kahn were the main perpetrators of this alleged Muslim Brotherhood infiltration.
Also at CPAC, ThinkProgress asked Norquist to respond to Gaffney’s allegations. Norquist said conservatives have to “knock that stuff down and just make it clear that there’s no place for that in the party of Reagan.” He added that he thinks the right’s Islamophobia “will go away because it doesn’t work. I would like it to go away because it’s the wrong thing to do.”
Right-wing anti-Ground Zero Islamic community center crusader Pam Geller hosted a panel at CPAC, “The Ground Zero Mosque: The Second Wave of the 9/11 Attacks.” During the question and answer period, ThinkProgress asked Geller — who also said that CPAC has been “corrupted and been compromised by Muslim Brotherhood operatives” — to respond to Norquist’s call for calm. “Grover’s got to go, Suhail Kahn’s gotto go,” Geller said dismissively, adding that the whole ACU board “has got to go!” After the event, ThinkProgress caught up with Geller and asked her to expound:
GELLER: I think that he should resign his seat and let true conservatives — … Here is a man, where the basic premise of freedom of speech. This is the tenant of conservative values. … So I think there’s something really wrong at CPAC.
TP: And you said something about the Muslim Brotherhood at CPAC? What did you mean by that?
GELLER: I didn’t mean anything about it. It’s been documented that he has ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.
TP: Who does?
GELLER: Suhail Kahn and Grover Norquist.
Watch the video clips:
ThinkProgress also asked Geller who she wants to see run for president in 2012 to help advance her views. “I think that the only person looking at a world that’s changing in the way that it’s changing catechistically, John Bolton would be my candidate,” she said.
See below for transcripts:
TP: Yeah my question is for mainly Pam. Grover Norquist said yesterday that making an issue out of the mosque – making an issue out of the mosque and the Sharia law thing, he said that he wanted it to go away because he doesn’t think it’ll work and he said he wants it to go away because it’s the wrong thing to do and I was wondering if maybe you could respond to that.
GELLER: Well I want the Sharia law to go away because I don’t think that’ll work. [applause] This is the problem with CPAC –
AUDIENCE MEMBER: We want Grover to go away.
AUDIENCE MEMBER 2: Grover should go!
GELLER: This is the problem with CPAC, that it’s corrupted and been compromised by Muslim Brotherhood operatives [applause] and the 12,000 people that come, the 12,000 people, this is why I do my event here. Every year I do an event because if you look at the agenda of CPAC look at all of the panels and then look at your daily news headlines, they’re either clueless or complicit and I believe it’s the latter. And I’m telling you that before you throw the baby out with the bathwater, there are 12,000 people that come to this event that don’t know that they’ve been completely sold out by CPAC leadership. We have to take CPAC back. You can’t create this again. You’re not going to create an event where 12,000 people come. You know how hard that is to do? Why do we have to walk away from something so great where the people are coming – people are coming here to be activated. You shouldn’t be sold to the highest bidder, the Ron Paulians. … So he’s, Grover’s gotta go, Suhail Kahn’s gotta go. Those copies of those checks by the Muslim Brotherhood. Keene is going to go. I see that Keane is leaving that’s fine but he’s really a figurehead. That board has to go! And people have to know what’s going on and the right doesn’t want to run these articles that I write because “we don’t want to eat our own.” And I say, “That ain’t our own!”
///
TP: Can I ask you a follow up on a question I asked you in there? You said that Grover Norquist has got to go. What did you mean by that? Do you mean that he should get out of the movement entirely or –
GELLER: I think that he should resign his seat and let true conservatives – yes –
TP: Resign his seat at ACU or –
GELLER: Yeah. That’s all I’m talking about. I’m talking about the CPAC. And this is a unique opportunity. You could never create an organization like this again. They should’ve done a Ground Zero mosque event. They absolutely should have.
TP: The ACU should have?
GELLER: CPAC should have. I should not have had to do this. I should not have had to beg to have Geert Wilders…speak here and then take a room and by the way I had 500 people there and we turned away 300 people. It was overflowing crowds ok?
Here is a man, where the basic premise of freedom of speech. This is the tenant of conservative values. I have to beg and I still can’t get it done? So I think there’s something really wrong at CPAC.
TP: And you said something about the Muslim Brotherhood at CPAC? What did you mean by that?
GELLER: I didn’t mean anything about it. It’s been documented that he has ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.
TP: Who does? Oh Grover does.
GELLER: Suhail Kahn and Grover Norquist and you know? Knowing what we know about the Muslim Brotherhood. According to an internal captured document in the holy land trial, the largest terror funding trial in American history, Hamas funding trial – according to an internal document, the stated goal of the Muslim Brotherhood is to eliminate and destroy Western Civilization from within. This was entered into evidence. It’s actually on my site I have it off of the holy land trial. I mean, they’re telling you! They’re telling you! And if we’ve been infiltrated by this movement then we need to route it out.
TP: So I’m assuming you want this to be an issue in the presidential campaign.
GELLER: I think it absolutely should be.
TP: Who do you think is going to be the candidate –
GELLER: Who do I think or who do I want?
TP: Which candidate do you think is going to help your cause more you think?
GELLER: It’s not my cause; it’s the cause of free men. It’s the cause of individual rights. It’s not my cause. I speak for the smallest minority in the world! I speak for individual rights. I think that the only person looking at a world that’s changing in the way that it’s changing catechistically, John Bolton would be my candidate. We need an intellectual heavyweight. We need a patriot. We need a man who loves America. We need a man who understands American exceptionalism. … So that would be my candidate. Maybe some people would say, “Oh you know he’s not charismatic enough. He doesn’t have the million dollar like Obama’s smile. I think that things are going to get to such a state that actually, that’s going to be the least on people’s lists of top, you know, top, you know?
