By Jude Eden
Human Rights activist Pamela Geller was scheduled to speak at the Great Neck Synagogue on April 14th until the synagogue’s officials caved to the bully tactics of Islamic bigot Habeeb Ahmed and others who relentlessly threatened and browbeat them should they go through with her speaking engagement. Ahmed’s kind loath open dialogue and ruthlessly vilify anyone who speaks the truth about the violence and extremism so prevalent in Islam. They vilified Geller and threatened among other things to march against the synagogue. The GNS’s officials could have resisted these threats; they could have championed free speech loudly. They could have weathered that storm and stood courageously and righteously against these present-day Nazis who were trying to deny their First Amendment rights. Instead, they acquiesced; and now they will never be able to live down their utter spinelessness. As Steve Goldberg so aptly put it, “They have disgraced their congregation, their families, and the entire Jewish community.”
Here is the Great Neck Synagogue Executive Committee’s statement:
As the notoriety and media exposure of the planned program this Sunday have increased, so has the legal liability and potential security exposure of our institution and it’s [sic] member families. In an era of heightened security concerns it is irresponsible to jeopardize the safety of those who call Great Neck Synagogue home, especially our children, even at the risk of diverting attention from a potentially important voice in the ongoing debate. Accordingly, the Great Neck Synagogue Men’s Club will no longer be sponsoring the appearance of Pamela Geller this coming Sunday, and no event will be taking place in our facility.
The Great Neck Synagogue could have dealt with the harassment and intimidation in any number of ways. Notably, they could have widely publicized it; but instead, Geller herself was the one to expose it on her website Atlas Shruggs along with Tom Trento of The United West. In the face of threats to march on the synagogue, they could have rallied the community to band together and stand firmly against the oppression of free speech. They could have counter-protested. If they indeed felt their children were threatened, they could have requested police protection and, again, exposed those (illegal) threats publicly.
Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch writes:
[T]he precedent is reinforced that smear campaigns work, and that all the foes of freedom have to do in order to shut down any voices opposed to them is mount a campaign simultaneously vilifying and demonizing their targeted speaker and showing the host the price he will have to pay for featuring the target.
I have lived and worked in Great Neck, and family of mine lived there for nearly their whole lives. It is a very strong community. I can’t help but remember on 9-11 the train station parking lots filled with cars that would never be retrieved by those who worked in the Twin Towers. Great Neck, like many New York City suburbs, was devastated by that terrorist attack. It is
From: http://www.westernjournalism.com/what-happened-to-never-again/