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Stop Islamization of America (SIOA) is an American anti-Islam/anti-Muslim (Islamophobic) organization. It is led by Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer. The president is Pamela Hall.
The group gained publicity in 2010 for its opposition to Park 51, a Muslim community center proposed for lower Manhattan. Further news coverage of SIOA came in 2011 after Anders Behring Breivik killed 77 people in Norway. He cited Spencer's writings 64 times and at length in his anti-Muslim manifesto, and he wrote that he was inspired by Geller.
SIOA has close ties with Stop Islamisation of Europe (SIOE). SIOA has hosted SIOE activists speaking in the US, but when Geller and Spencer traveled to England to attend a far-right English Defense League rally in June 2013, they were turned back by the UK government as "inflammatory speakers who promote hate". SIOA was named a hate group in June 2011 by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
History
SIOA was founded by and is led by Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer as a program of their American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI). It was founded in 2010 at the request of Anders Gravers Pedersen, the leader of Stop Islamisation of Europe, of which it is the American affiliate.
SIOA gained attention as an early driving force within the controversy surrounding the construction of Park51, a planned 13-story Muslim community center to be located two blocks from the World Trade Center site in Lower Manhattan. On May 6, 2010, following community approval of the project, Geller posted an opposition essay calling the building a "Monster Mosque". SIOA launched a "Campaign Offensive: Stop the 9/11 Mosque!" and other protests.
In July 2010, the organization purchased controversial bus ads in various cities which promoted a website offering "refuge from Islam." The Council on American-Islamic Relations criticized the ads' premise and stated that the claim of helping people who already wanted to convert away from Islam, when Geller was known for her anti-Muslim remarks, was "a smoke screen to advance her long-standing history of anti-Muslim bigotry."
The Southern Poverty Law Center named SIOA an anti-Muslim hate group in February 2011, saying that it is a "propaganda powerhouse" that paints moderate Muslims as radical terrorists. The Anti-Defamation League also lists it as a hate group, saying that it "promotes a conspiratorial anti-Muslim agenda under the guise of fighting radical Islam" and "seeks to rouse public fears by consistently vilifying the Islamic faith and asserting the existence of an Islamic conspiracy to destroy 'American' values."
SIOA ran another series of ads in the New York City subway in September 2012, these ones reading "In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man. Support Israel. Defeat Jihad." Several groups have sponsored subway ads to counter SOIA's original ad and condemn it as "hate speech." The Jewish Council for Public Affairs has called it "bigoted, divisive" and JCPA President Rabbi Steve Gutow has said "the fact that ads have been placed in the subway attacking Israel does not excuse the use of attack ads against Muslims." Journalist Mona Eltahawy, who sees the ad as equating Muslims to "savages," was arrested for spray-painting over one of the ads; SIOA's president Pamela Hall announced she would sue Eltahawy for having allegedly damaged Hall's filming equipment with spray paint while Hall tried to block Eltahawy's way. In late December 2012 both Al-Jazeera and Salon mentioned the advertisements creating an anti-Muslim atmosphere that led to the December 27, 2012 murder of Sunando Sen, who was killed by a subway train after being pushed onto the racks by Erika Menendez, and similar acts of violence. Menendez told police: "I pushed a Muslim off the train tracks because I hate Hindus and Muslims."
In early January 2013 the Freedom Defense Initiative put up advertisements next to 228 clocks in 39 New York subway stations showing the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center with a quote attributed to the Koran: "Soon shall we cast terror into the hearts of the unbelievers." The New York City Transit Authority, which said it would have to carry the advertisements on First Amendment grounds, insisted that 25% of the ad contain a Transit Authority disclaimer. The ads ran for a month.
On June 26, 2013, the United Kingdom Home Secretary acted to prevent Geller and Spencer from entering the UK to attend a rally organised by the far-right English Defense League. Intended to mark Armed Forces Day on June 29, 2013, the march was due to end in Woolwich, scene of the murder of Lee Rigby. The government described the pair as "inflammatory speakers who promote hate" and that they had been excluded as their presence was not "conducive to the public good".
Goals
SIOA describes its goals as focusing on human rights, religious liberty, and freedom of speech, and opposing Sharia law (Islamic religious law). One of its founders described it as "a human rights entity dedicated to the freedom of speech, which is under attack, as well as to the freedom of religion and to individual rights."
See also
- Criticism of Islam
- Criticism of Islamism
- Criticism of multiculturalism
- English Defence League
- Norwegian Defence League
- Stop Islamisation of Denmark
- Stop Islamisation of Norway
- Stop Islamisation of Europe
References
- Ernst, Carl W. (2013). "Introduction: The Problem of Islamophobia". Islamophobia in America: The Anatomy of Intolerance. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 1137290080.
- Kumar, Deepa (2012). Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire. Haymarket Books. p. 179. ISBN 1608462110.
...the other leading sources of anti-Muslim racism are... Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer's Stop Islamization of America...
- Davidson, Lawrence (May 2011). "Islamophobia, the Israel Lobby and American Paranoia: Letter from America". Holy Land Studies. 10 (1): 87–95. doi:10.3366/hls.2011.0005.
- ^ Stephanie Price (July 28, 2010). "'Anti-Islamic' bus ads appear in major cities". Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved January 31, 2012.
- Carpenter, Mackenzie (September 9, 2010). "Muslim center here copes with increased Islam-bashing". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
- ^ "Stop the Islamization of America (SIOA)". Extremism. Anti-Defamation League. September 14, 2010. Retrieved January 12, 2013.
- EDL Invites US Anti-Muslim 'Hate Bloggers' Pam Geller and Robert Spencer to Speak at Woolwich Rally
- Ground Zero mosque plans 'fuelling anti-Muslim protests across US'
- http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2209227/Mona-Eltahawy-EXCLUSIVE-Woman-attacked-defending-anti-jihad-subway-ad-plans-sue-activist-sprayed-HER.html?ito=feeds-newsxml
- ^ Beirich, Heidi (2013). "Hate Across the Waters: The Role of American Extremists in Fostering an International White Consciousness". In Ruth Wodak, Majid KhosraviNik, Brigitte Mral (ed.). Right-Wing Populism in Europe: Politics and Discourse. A&C Black. pp. 89–92. ISBN 1780932456.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: editors list (link) - ^ Anti-Ground Zero Mosque campaigners Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer barred from entering Britain to speak at an EDL rally, The Independent, 2013-06-26. Retrieved 2013-06-28.
- ^ Steinback, Robert (Summer 2011). "Jihad Against Islam". The Intelligence Report. No. 142. Southern Poverty Law Center.
- Stephen E. Atkins (2011). The 9/11 Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. Retrieved January 31, 2012.
- ^ "AFDI/SIOA, VAST to Host Jessica Mokdad Human Rights Conference in Dearborn, Michigan at Hyatt Regency" (Press release). MarketWatch. December 5, 2011. Retrieved January 31, 2012.
- ^ "Thousands Attend SIOA Rally Against Islamic Supremacist Mosque at Ground Zero" (Press release). Newsblaze.com. June 8, 2010. Retrieved January 31, 2012.
- ^ Barnard, Anne; Feuer, Alan (October 10, 2010). "Outraged, And Outrageous". The New York Times.
- Gottschalk, Peter (2012). "Religion Out of Place: Islam and cults as perceived threats in the United States". In Gershon Shafir, Everard Meade, William J. Aceves (ed.). Lessons and Legacies of the War on Terror: From Moral Panic to Permanent War. Critical Terrorism Studies. Routledge. pp. 111–112. ISBN 0415638410.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: editors list (link) - Justin Elliott (August 16, 2010). "How the "ground zero mosque" fear mongering began". Salon.
- ^ "'Leaving Islam?' bus adverts draw anger in NYC". Telegraph. May 27, 2010.
- Siemaszko, Corky (February 25, 2011). "Southern Poverty Law Center lists anti-Islamic NYC blogger Pamela Geller, followers a hate group". New York Daily News.
- ^ Emily Anne Epstein (27 Sept 2012). "Woman 'attacked' while defending anti-jihad subway ad plans to sue activist who sprayed painted HER". Daily Mail.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - "Free-speech free-for-all". New York Post. Oct 6, 2012.
- Ashwaq Masood (Oct 4, 2012). "Pro-Muslim Subway Ads to Hang Near Anti-Jihad Ads". New York Times.
- "JCPA Condemns Bigoted, Divisive, and Unhelpful Anti-Muslim Ads". JCPA. Retrieved September 21, 2012.
- "Let us spray, says lawyer for vandalizer of anti-jihad poster". New York Daily News. September 26, 2012.
- Murtaza Hussain, Anti-Muslim violence spiralling out of control in America, Al-Jazeera, December 31, 2012.
- Wajahat Ali, Death by brown skin, Salon, December 31, 2012.
- New anti-Muslim ads up in NYC subway stations, CBS News, January 9, 2013.
- More Ads With Inflammatory Messages About Islam Appear In NYC Subway, WCBS-TV, January 8, 2013.
- ^ Matt Flegenheimer (Dec 13, 2012). "Controversial Group Plans More Ads in Subway Stations". New York Times.
- Emily Anne Epstein, New Anti-Islam Ads to Debut This Month, Now With 25% More MTA Disclaimer, The New York Observer, December 7, 2012.
- "More Ads With Inflammatory Messages About Islam Appear In NYC Subway". CBS news. January 8, 2013.
- "US bloggers banned from entering UK". BBC.
- Far-right US bloggers banned from entering UK for Woolwich rally, The Guardian, 2013-06-26. Retrieved 2013-06-28.
- "Stop the Islamization of America". Aina.org. Retrieved January 31, 2012.