The Tentacles of the Hate Network Breivik Adores Touch the Alaska Legislature

Much has been written since last Friday about Anders Behring Breivik's adoration of American blogger and leading purveyor of irrational fear of Muslims, Pam Geller.  Here's a bit of a summation, by William Saletan, at Slate:

On Friday, anti-Islamist blogger Pamela Geller pounced on news of a massacre in Oslo. "Jihad in Norway?" she asked. She posted a second item—"You cannot avoid the consequences of ignoring jihad"—and linked to a previous one: "Norway: ALL Rapes in Past 5 Years Committed by Muslims." As the Oslo body count grew, she piled on: "if I hear another television or radio reporter refer to muhammad as 'the Prophet Muhammad,' I think I am going to puke. He's not your prophet, assclowns."

Then things went horribly wrong. It turned out that the suspected terrorist in Norway wasn't a Muslim. He hated Muslims. And he admired Geller.


In a manifesto posted online, the admitted killer, Anders Behring Breivik, praised Geller. He cited her blog, Atlas Shrugs, and the writings of her friends, allies, and collaborators—Robert Spencer, Jihad Watch, Islam Watch, and Front Page magazine—more than 250 times. And he echoed their tactics, tarring peaceful Muslims with the crimes of violent Muslims. He wrote that all Muslims sought to impose "sharia laws" and that "there are no important theological differences between jihadists and so-called 'peaceful' or 'moderate' Muslims." He reprinted, as part of the manifesto, a 2006 essay by "Fjordman"—a blogger whose work appears frequently on Geller's site—which argued that "radical Muslims and moderate Muslims are allies" and that because Islam teaches deception, no Muslim who claims to be moderate can be trusted.

 Perhaps it is time to remind Alaskans of the similar adoration for Geller held by Alaska Representatives Carl Gatto, Bob Lynn and Wes Keller.  Last winter, in the efforts of these two legislators to get a bill passed here that was pretty much handed to them in boiler-plate fashion by David Yarushalmi, a self-styled expert on why we need more laws, so that mosques aren't built on every street corner, Gatto and Lynn got Geller to testify before the House committee considering the bill.  The bill, House Bill 88, did not pass the 2011 session, but is waiting in the Finance Committee as of April 4th, to be brought back up in January 2012.

When Geller testified in March, she linked to that at her blog.  Perhaps Breivik read the post.  Here's the last paragraph of her testimony.  It is a statement markedly similar to some of what Breivik posted in his pre-murder spree video:

One only needs to look at the disintegration of Europe and the establishment all over that continent of enclaves in which Sharia is enforced and the law of the land disregarded, to glimpse a bleak future made possible by “good intentions” and the failure of multiculturalism. In those areas of Europe, women and non-Muslims suffer institutionalized discrimination, and there is no freedom of speech or freedom of conscience.

I don't expect Gatto, Lynn or Keller to disown Geller, or to scrutinize more closely the groups and figures Geller openly supports, such as The English Defense League, Dutch racist Geert Wilders, and the host of interconnected Islamophobic groups Max Blumenthal has been documenting so thoroughly, particularly since December, 2010.  Nor do I expect that Alaska media will take it upon themselves to re-assess just why our legislature felt it had the time to waste to try to push this piece of crap bill, when there really are important issues the legislature needs to address.

We'll see if HB 88 comes back up again in January, and whether or not Ms. Geller testifies again.