Tea Party Convention Won't Drop 'Threat Of Islam' Speaker Pamela Geller

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Tea party organizers will not drop a speaker from a Tennessee convention this weekend despite calls from a national Muslim rights group that considers her anti-Islamic.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations had urged that Pamela Geller be cut from the Tennessee Tea Party Convention in Gatlinburg over her views on Muslims. Washington-based CAIR said in a release Thursday that it objects to Pamela Geller's presentation titled "The Threat of Islam."

Convention organizer Anthony Shreeve said in an e-mail Friday that Geller will speak despite those concerns.

"We will not follow any request from CAIR," Shreeve said. "We also believe in the right to freedom of speech as given to us by our U.S. Constitution."

Geller heads a group called Stop Islamization of America.

"CAIR is trying to get good, decent Americans in the Tennessee Tea Party to crush free speech by dropping me," Geller wrote on her blog.

The Gatlinburg meeting has been organized by a coalition of more than 30 tea party groups around the state that chafed at the goals and price tag of a national tea party convention held in Nashville in February.

The registration fee for the Gatlinburg event is $30, while the Nashville event that featured a speech by former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin cost $549.

Grass roots activists have criticized Nashville event organizer Judson Phillips' leadership of the Tea Party Nation for being too closely tied with the Republican Party and for designating the group a for-profit organization.

Phillips' group has scheduled a "National Tea Party Unity Convention" in Las Vegas in July.

The Gatlinburg meeting features a keynote speech from U.S. Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, and a debate among Tennessee gubernatorial candidates.

Comments

[ThirdSection]

03:56 AM on 05/22/2010

If the teabaggers want a crusade, then by all means, let's send them to where they can have one!

Also, they should leave their passports over here for safekeeping...

[Trollstein]

07:17 PM on 05/21/2010

When Catholics get married, the priest requires that both the bride and groom promise to have children. If one refuses, the priest may refuse to continue. This is traditional. For hundreds of years, Catholics were expected to have many children. Nowadays, Catholics still have more children then Protestants but it is no longer considered as strict of a rule. Mainly ceremonial.
Mid East Arabs and other Muslims have very many children. They often do this out of a sense of entitlement and/or duty. But the Mid Eastern cultures have little productive enterprise to support the ballooning population. They are farmers and sometimes they have small manufacturing but their GDPs are on the low side. Yemen is one of the poorest places on Earth. Oil makes a big difference but most of the common Arabs never see any oil revenue. Anyway, this "threat" which people are now debating is really a manufactured one. It is real enough but Islam is merely the tool which is convenient to facilitate the revolution which is likely coming as the result of exorbitant birth rates. If Islam did not exist, someone would have to invent it, as to provide the conduit to rally the masses.

[SmartAmerica]

08:40 PM on 05/28/2010

Just when I think things can't get any dumber...

[TinfoilLatte]

07:10 PM on 05/21/2010

This conflict is hitting too close to home.

[EricEFNY]

04:56 PM on 05/21/2010

And the Muslims continue to insist to build a multi-level Islamic Center that touts Sharia Law will be applicable here in the States. Right across from the WTC in NYC. If they can do that a speaker for the Tea Party, in the name of free speech, couldn't be much of an issue...only if you would like it to be.

[luvobama]

05:21 PM on 05/21/2010

pssst

That was a st00pid comment the first time you posted it.

Nothing's changed.

[EricEFNY]

06:13 PM on 05/21/2010

Pssst...I only posted it once.....Moderator my blank. As a moderator you should know better than to mask a word using numbers instead of letters. It is only stupid (no numbers here) if you are a hypocrite..which I would say you are.

Moderator in your case is defined: Silence the opinions you care not to hear.

[TinfoilLatte]

07:12 PM on 05/21/2010

Would you like Christian Religious Law instead?

I prefer to keep things secular, myself.

[EricEFNY]

01:40 AM on 05/22/2010

"Would you like Christian Religious Law instead?"-TinfoilLatte

That would be like saying you would want Sharia Law...well then again maybe you would...LOL..Amazing how you draw your conclusions. Oh..the Soviet Union was really good at keeping the law "secular" back in the day...Dreamy..

Values without a state sponsored religion is just fine with me. Recognizing all have the right to believe or not to in anything spiritual or religious..and protecting the same is what I prefer.

Those who do believe should not be persecuted or made to feel they will not be tolerated. However if a group feels laws of a particular sect of any religion supersedes the civil laws of a nation...that becomes a problem..a very serious problem.

Remember the "honor" killings? Under their particular belief the taking of their daughter's life was within "the law" of the same.

Oversimplify an issue with two liners..says a lot.

[sunlight11]

09:51 AM on 05/27/2010

HOW ABOUT UNITED STATES OF AMERICA LAW

GOD BLESS AMERICA AND ALL HER CHILDREN

PEACE

[southernman]

04:54 PM on 05/21/2010

This is fun ... now I know where all the trolls went

[MendozaLine]

04:55 PM on 05/21/2010

Too many rocks being lifted on the Paul thread. Bugs like the dark.

[southernman]

04:59 PM on 05/21/2010

good one ..fanned

[MendozaLine]

04:51 PM on 05/21/2010

The tea party is like meth for the GOP. Intense pleasure, followed by rush of energy, followed by paranoia, ending with loss of teeth.

[Eykis]

04:53 PM on 05/21/2010

Mendoza,

ROFLMFAO, thanks for making my Friday afternoon. Sure glad I am not planning on a weekend trip to Gatlinburg - we are actually planning to be in Gatlinburg next month. We often spend weekends in the mountains.

[MendozaLine]

04:54 PM on 05/21/2010

Be careful out there, never know who you're gonna run into. :-) Nice to see you.

[southernman]

04:56 PM on 05/21/2010

The mountains are beautiful its the conservatives living there that suck

[Rebecca]

04:54 PM on 05/21/2010

Hahahaha! So true!!!

[sunshine14]

04:46 PM on 05/21/2010

A great faithful scholar of studies in faith once said.

For any Nation to remain free, it should not use religion as a self critizing source to critize others that would be boasting of self righteousness.

Christian use loosely when saying in pretentioness by saying In the Eyes of God to equate that G*d's judgment is your judgment is in the wrong religion.

For it is beyond your judgment to know G*d's judgment in it's self, is only boasting of ones own righteousness and not humility-for no one knows the mind of G*d or G*d's judgment-anyone to do so is in the wrong religion.

[Cooltoad]

04:43 PM on 05/21/2010

Excellent. Now the radical muslims know exactly what their targets are, rather than innocent Americans. LOL.

[Ronnie Bray]

04:43 PM on 05/21/2010

The Republicans and their Tea Bag activist Rent-a-Mob always fall back on fear-mongering. The problem is that Americans - well, some of the more intellectually challenged - are completely gullible.

These are they that still believe the bogeyman is real and that snivelling monsters hide beneath their beds at night and that there are ghosties and ghoulies and beasties lurking behind the coats in their closets and that all they have to do is to shoot first and then let someone clean up the mess.

These are the scaredy cats that slaughtered Indians, whupped, raped, and murdered Negro slaves, and they hate anyone and anything that is not exactly as they are, does not think as they do, does not vote and they vote, and has the temerity to tell them that they are wrong and that conflict resolution is adult behaviour but lynching, shooting, and bombing are infantile, primitive, and guarantees that hostility will never end.

These often claim to follow Jesus but did not hear Him when he said, "Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be the children of God."

Can they hear him now?

Nope!

[MendozaLine]

04:52 PM on 05/21/2010

It's all they have. That's it.

[EricEFNY]

05:09 PM on 05/21/2010

Rent-a-Mob? Like the SEIU? You are too funny. Especially that last line invoking the name of Christ. Even he carried a whip to the temple...

Quit using Jesus into the argument...some of those involved in the tea party movement are agnostics or non-religious.

[BlueRoseofTexas]

05:12 PM on 05/21/2010

Then what are they doing there? The Tea Party stands for having religion inserted into government. I'll bet there is not a single agnostic or atheist in their ranks.

[Eykis]

04:43 PM on 05/21/2010

GAG ME!

I HAD NO CLUE the TEABAGGERS are trying again here in Tennessee. They FAILED MISERABLY in Middle Tennessee and now trying to gin up BS in Eastern Tennessee, which is the most CONSERVATIVE PART of the state.


I feel sorry for ANYONE who plans to be in Gatlinburg this weekend. Gatlinburg is one of the MAIN TOURIST ATTRACTIONS in Tennessee. It is the "On Top of Ole Smoky" national park along with Pigeon Forge (Dollywood) at the bottom of the mountain.


Pam Geller, no less. COULD THEY GET ANY CRAZIER?

[CampCalifornia]

04:44 PM on 05/21/2010

They could have asked Obama. Now that would have been crazy.

[Eykis]

04:50 PM on 05/21/2010

Guess you cannot afford the room rates and food prices in Gatlinburg, so you BEST HOPE they pass the UE benefits you so DESPERATELY NEED, jerk.

[southernman]

04:51 PM on 05/21/2010

That would be like a fly in buttermilk but on the downside I'm sure he could use words that were small enough to not confuse people like the tea baggers or you.

[Eykis]

04:55 PM on 05/21/2010

Gatlinburg is a tiny little tourist town - hope the shopkeepers JACK THEIR PRICES UP for the TEABAGGERS.

[BlueRoseofTexas]

05:14 PM on 05/21/2010

Put out the Confederate flags and huge belt buckles!

[TBinSD]

04:42 PM on 05/21/2010

It's almost as bad as the 'Threat of Christianity'

[luvobama]

04:43 PM on 05/21/2010

#5

[Eykis]

04:50 PM on 05/21/2010

Fanned #6.

[Donna1224]

04:42 PM on 05/21/2010

This has nothing to do with free speech rights. This woman is a good old fashioned racist and she's just what the Tea Party is all about and wants in its speakers! They hide behind first amendment rights so they can spread hate throughout the country about certain groups of people. The country has caught on to their little act and we will call them out everytime they try to pull any of their crap! Islam isn't the threat.....it's people like her and her tea party groupies that are the threat to this country! We should all be scared enough NOT TO VOTE ANYMORE OF THESE PEOPLE INTO OFFICE!

[CampCalifornia]

04:48 PM on 05/21/2010

Here comes another racist. My I never imagined so many lefties were racist.

[luvobama]

05:14 PM on 05/21/2010

If nothing else, you baggers stick together.

Which is all good. We need to know who you are so we can keep our children away from you creepy crazee types.

[BlueRoseofTexas]

05:20 PM on 05/21/2010

Is that the best you can do? Donna said nothing relating to Ms. Geller's race. Roger Ailes must be on vacation because the talking points this week are really lame.

[StinkyBush]

04:38 PM on 05/21/2010

Catholicization, Jewishization, Presbytazion, Masterbazion, Islamization, Hundunization, Buttanization, Christianization, Taxzation without representation, Birth of a Nization, carbonization, are all one big ABBORRATION.

[EricEFNY]

01:06 AM on 05/22/2010

Now that you probably insulted every group and made an association with some very strange, unrelated themes..what is next for you?....oh I forget...more creative debate. If you were trying to say "aberration" when using "ABBORRATION"...I am sure you qualify.

Insulting many people that might be on your side...doesn't help very much...not that I am saying I would be one of them...because I am not.

[CampCalifornia]

04:37 PM on 05/21/2010

Many lefties try to deny that mizzlimans want ot push sharia law on the US. For the people that only get their news form Hp or Kos. Here is the news story that you never read. I'm sorry so many of our lefty freinds bash without any knowledge. It's about the Mizzliman that wants to build the 17 satory mosque near Ground 0 and wants to further his fathers dream of sharia Law in the US. I have 28 other reference articles if you need more proof to overcome your bias against Americans.

http://europenews.dk/en/node/32324

[southernman]

04:40 PM on 05/21/2010

OOhh! I'm certainly impressed ... you sir are a conservative Mensa

[TBinSD]

04:45 PM on 05/21/2010

Hell, I'm tired of Christians and Christian law. In fact, I'm tired of all of the religions. Religion is the root of too many modern-day problems.

[tallen]

04:32 PM on 05/21/2010

"The Council on American-Islamic Relations had urged that Pamela Geller be cut..."

So, the unindicted terror co-conspirator is afraid of a little free speech. They do that a lot.
You have to wonder why they are so afraid of one person speaking.

[donanobispace]

04:49 PM on 05/21/2010

Tallen, why do only post when you can bash muslims and arabs?

[tallen]

05:37 PM on 05/21/2010

It's my interest, having been to the middle east and having been close enough to a truck bomb that it left a few bits of the middle east embedded in me.

[luvobama]

05:16 PM on 05/21/2010

If my husband were as big a scaredy cat as you, I would leave him.

I like my men strong. Not snivelly.

[tallen]

05:38 PM on 05/21/2010

Now that's funny.
I'm not the one afraid of what she has to say.