Intellectual dishonesty
I am stunned by Andrew Silow-Carroll’s column, “Pamela Geller: Our own Farrakhan?” (Oct. 14).
As a woman, I was offended by his sexist description of her looks, “Attractive in a Real Housewives of Long Island sort of way.” How on earth are her looks relevant? Would I, in writing this letter to the editor, mention that Andrew Silow-Carroll appears to be “not unattractive in a The Office sort of way?”
But as I read on, the column got so ridiculous that I thought I must have picked up an old April Fools edition. I am not a follower or supporter of Ms. Geller’s; I don’t think I’ve read much of her writing. But honestly, “Imagine if there were a Muslim blogger with a mirror-image anti-Jewish animus.” Seriously? There are hundreds of them. And hundreds of non-Muslim anti-Jewish bloggers. “Imagine if this hypothetical Muslim had similar reach and clout.” Anti-Jewish and anti-Israel bloggers have far more clout and far greater followings. Does the Huffington Post ring a bell? “Organizing conferences of European anti-Semites.” There are dozens of such conferences all over Europe and of course throughout Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. But who needs to go all the way around the world to find anti-Jewish conferences when we have the United Nations right in our back yard? “Appearing on all the cable chat shows.” Have you watched Morning Joe? How about CNN when they talk about Israel? The Daily Show?
I don’t know what Ms. Geller writes and I certainly don’t condone the blanket denunciation of any religion, but let’s not be intellectually dishonest in saying that anti-Islamic sentiment even approaches the magnitude of anti-Jewish sentiment. First, let’s turn our condemnation toward those who hate us. There are plenty of them to choose from.
Sarit Catz
Short Hills
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