The Pamela Geller - Debbie Schlussel Dust-up, As Explained by Lawrence Auster

Lawrence Auster of View from the Right writes to Saber Point to discuss the bad blood between Pamela Geller and Debbie Schlussel.

Stogie,

While reading your discussion about Debbie Schussel I came upon a link to Schlussel's November 2009 post in which she attacked Pamela Geller for inviting Patricia Said, the mother of the two girls slain by their father in an honor killing in Texas in 2008, to speak at a pro-Rifqa Bary demo in NYC last November 16. Schlussel pointed out that two months earlier (September 2009) Geller had said that Patricia Said belonged in jail, yet now she was inviting her to be a speaker. Schlussel said she wrote to Geller asking her why she was doing this, and Geller didn't reply:

Instead of answering my question, Pamela ignored it and covered her ass–choosing to deceive readers of her Atlas Shrugs website with creative editing and removing Patricia Said’s name and changing it to “honor killing victims’ family members.” (It should have read “co-conspirators in honor killings.) But Said will be there, courtesy of Pamela, who organized the rally and paid for Tissie Said’s travel to and lodging for the event. But, hey, Pamela told third parties that it will be “powerful.” Riiiight. Perhaps, after reading this, at the last minute Pamela–to save face, but not because she’s discovering anything she didn’t know well–will ask Said not to speak. But don’t be fooled. Less than two months after calling this woman a “co-murderer” and saying she should be in jail, Pamela invited her to the event.

I wondered what the truth was about this and whether Geller had ever explained what was going on. So I did some searching at Geller's site. In the thread posted just before the November 16 demo took place, commenters raised the issue of Schlussel's accusation, and Geller answered in a laconic and uninformative manner:

Patricia Said was not at the rally. When I spoke with her, I found her story to be deceptive. She was not there.

Given the seriousness of the underlying facts, that two months after calling Patricia Said a "murderous mom" who "deserves jail" Geller included her on the roster of speakers at a Geller-organized demonstration, Geller needed to provide a better explanation than that.

Then in a thread at Atlas Shrugs posted after the demonstration, commenters again repeated Schlussel's charges, and finally Geller gave a fuller explanation:

Don't come on my site and call me liar. There are scummy ponds on the web where you would feel more in your element. Not here.

Tissy contacted me before I went to Texas. She wanted to repent. She'd had one story for two years. And I have excoriated her mercilessly for complicity and submission to Yaser.When she broke with Yaser's family and the rest of his rat pack and said she failed the girls, she wanted to repent. I gave her a hearing.

Of course I was interested. She might have cast light on Muslim tyranny in the home. What goes on in situations where Muslim predator men like Yaser look for borderline mentally challenged girls of 15 years of age, not attractive and pathetic like Tissy.

It might have helped Rifqa, if a high profile Honor killer/mom came clean on Islam.

After vetting her story I thought she was deceptive and did not have her speak. No biggie.

But these trolls keep obsessing about something that never happened and ignore the magnificent event that took place today. DS knows none of the backstory. None.

That Schlussel is taking off on this righteous rally and belching her special brand of hate all over it says more about her than it does about anybody else in this pathetic losers charade.

She is what my bubbie would call a "nishfuginnuh"

The bottom line is Tissy was a non-story. The big story was the wonderful rally for Rifqa with hundreds (200-300) of great people, that came from all over the standing, fighting for her freedom of religion. Now that's a big deal. Halivay!

No second hander is going to drive a fallacious narrative into the gutter where apparently they appear most comfortable.

Posted by: Pamela Geller Tuesday, November 17, 2009 at 01:03 AM

Geller's explanation helps clear things up, but her abusive tone to the people accusing her conceals the fact that she herself allowed the story to hang out there by ignoring Schlussel's criticisms and refusing to tell why she had invited Patricia Said to be a speaker.

Geller writes:

After vetting her story I thought she was deceptive and did not have her speak. No biggie.

But these trolls keep obsessing about something that never happened and ignore the magnificent event that took place today. DS knows none of the backstory. None.

But something did happen. Geller invited a woman she had called a murderer who "deserves jail" to be a speaker at Geller's demonstration. Having refused to explain this odd and troubling behavior until after the demonstration took place, she then accused people who had perfectly rational concerns about the matter of being "trolls" who "keep obsessing about something that never happened." It didn't occur to her that if she had explained the matter earlier, those "trolls" wouldn't have been obsessing about it.

My conclusion: While Schlussel is an unstable and often irrational individual, the concerns she raised in this instance were rational and valid, and Geller, by refusing to provide any kind of explanation between November 1, when she posted Patricia Said's name as a speaker at the demo, until after the demo had taken place on November 16, helped fuel the suspicions and bad feelings instead of clearing them up. Part of the problem may be that Schlussel has so discredited herself with her numerous false accusations that people tend to ignore her even when she is making valid points. Another part of the problem is that Geller is so egotistical and unreflective that it never occurred to her that she needed to explain why she had invited Patricia Said.

Lawrence Auster
 
Stogie responds:
 
Thanks for explaining the argument between Debbie Schlussel and Pamela Geller.  I knew that Schlussel had attacked Geller but didn't know the back story; now I do.  My comments are below.
 
If it has been reliably determined that Patricia Said was an accomplice in the murder of her two daughters, then Schlussel has a strong point:  Patricia Said should never have been invited to speak at the rally under any circumstances.  However, Said has not been charged with any crimes so it appears unlikely that the police consider her an accomplice.  
 
Geller could have looked into the matter and simply changed her mind about Said's involvement based on better information.  At that point, Geller stated that she thought having a Muslim mom, whose daughters were murdered by their father, could provide powerful testimony against honor killings.  As Geller stated, her intention was to prevent future honor killings by having a Muslim mother speak on the subject.  That is a very honorable motive in my mind. 
 
Geller then interviewed Said and decided against having her appear, based on that interview.  I don't see anything unreasonable in Geller's actions or decisions on the matter, but yes, she undoubtedly should have refrained from publishing Said's planned appearance until after Said had been properly vetted, and should have clearly explained her thinking when challenged by Schlussel. 
 
Nevertheless, let us look at the motivations of the two women:

Pamela Geller:  sought to prevent future honor killings
Debbie Schlussel:  sought only to embarrass Pamela Geller

Stogie's Conclusions:
In the end, I must conclude that Schlussel sought not to make any valid points about Geller, but merely to undermine yet another conservative who is more successful than she is.  Geller 1, Schlussel 0.