Pamela Geller and the English Defence League

I followed this story for a bit yesterday. The short of is that the folks at Gates of Vienna are attacking Pamela Geller for calling out the English Defense League for the anti-Semitism in its ranks. I thought I'd blog on this sooner or later, and there's never been a question as to picking sides: Pamela's my friend and she's long been slammed by idiots like Charles Johnson. So now that she's warned some in the EDL leadership it's clear there's going to be no tolerance for this at Atlas Shrugs. Pamela updated with a new post yesterday, "The Evil That Men Do":

Apparently an update is required on the blogwar against Atlas that is being waged by vultures with an altogether nefarious agenda. It's not important, because these bottomfeeders just bang keyboards and jockey for position on the bottom of the food chain. But to be clear .......

I stand by my concern about the increasing antisemitism in the ranks of the admins at the EDL. We have no intention of breaking with the EDL if they purge these antisemitic elements. If they do not, they will be finished as a force for good in England. I was immediately reassured that these rogue elements would be routed out. End of story. This campaign to gang up on Geller by small "counter-jihadists" trying to make a name for themselves clearly is motivated by something enitrely different. Something very ugly and transparent.

And about that Facebook page (pictured), Pamela writes:

There are pages and pages of this kind of stuff. Here is just one example. "Hel Gower" is a powerful EDL administrator. She "liked" this page.

I've read through the comments at Gates of Vienna, and mostly this is a prestige thing (there's rank jealousy of Pamela), but a lot of ugliness over there as well, for example, this comment from DP111:

The EDL is the only grassroots movement in the West that is against the destruction of Western civilisation. It is the only one that has the courage to go out on the streets, even into Muslim areas, and face the hostility and violence of Muslims, Left wing extremists, the police and the media. There is nothing like it in the West. There are now movements in the West that have modelled themselves on the EDL.

The EDL is way above and beyond the likes of single bloggers such as Geller and Spencer, or for that matter any blogs. The EDL does not need to apologise or explain itself - its very being and what it does, is more then enough. The rest is immaterial. It does not need to have an apology from Spencer or Geller, as it is far bigger, stronger, and motivated enough to step on to the real battlefield, rather then merely bemoan the Islamisation of the West - they are real soldiers, who get bloodied and injured, rather then armchair commentators on the passing scene.

My hat off to the EDL. Support it, as your life, and the lives of your descendants, depends on these few.

My scholarly work covered European interwar politics, and reading that reminds me of the Brownshirts of Hitler's Germany. So this guy is calling out Pamela and Robert Spencer for raising questions about EDL affiliations? And as Pamela and Robert are by no means "armchair commentators" it seems that some of the animosity toward them is generated by an irrational hatred in response to challenge. And the commenter insinuates that fighting in the street, fighting with violence, is what it takes to fight the left and Islamization (see the Daily Mail on this). So it's a dispute on tactics as well. And not to read too much into one comment, but it's not a long step from the street thuggery against Muslims to attacks against Jews as part of a global conspiracy. (See this anti-Semitic British National Socialist blog post, for example, and the sidebar graphic there, which says "REMEMBER: PRO-ISRAEL + ANTI-ISLAM = New World Order.)

Anyway, see Robert Spencer at Jihad Watch, "EDL leader: 'We repudiate any individual, group or writing that favors anti-Semitism, neofascism, and any race-based ideology'. "

And Robert Stacy McCain has more on the controversy, "Genesis 12:3." And following the link there takes us to Da Tech Guy, "Not late to Pam’s side this time."